Richard Talalla JC:

On 23 August 1987 at about 7.30 p.m. the plaintiff was riding his motor cycle along the Kluang/Mersing road from the direction of Kluang town in the direction of Mersing. At the same time and place the defendant was driving a motor car number JAN 8093 along a side road which was on the left of the main road as one faces Mersing and which side road led to and connected with the main road. The defendant was proceeding towards the main road, stopped at the junction, then went on with the intention of turning right in the direction of Kluang town when the motor cycle and the motor car came into collision, the motor cycle colliding into the driver's door of the motor car. There was a crest along the Kluang side of the main road which the plaintiff had to proceed over before coming to the junction of the side road with the main road.

A police sketch plan with key and photographs of the scene and the 2 vehicles involved were produced in evidence.

At the trial before me both the plaintiff and the defendant gave evidence on oath stating their respective versions of how the accident happened.

The plaintiff's story was that he first sighted the motor car when it was already at the mouth of the junction and it dashed out instantly giving no time for him to avoid it. He was travelling at about 60 kmh just before the accident. When he first saw the car coming out of the junction his motor cycle was about 28 feet from the car. In cross-examination he said that he was travelling along that part of the road left of the centre white line, that he had to take a slight uphill gradient before coming to the junction which was so he testified, some 50 to 60 yards from the crest of the hill. He proceeded straight and collided into the car. It was put to him that he was not travelling along the left edge of the road to which he truthfully agreed. It was put to him that he was travelling at speed. He maintained that he was travelling at 60 kmh. He agreed that before he crested the hill he could not see the junction and that he had to accelerate to go up the hill. However, he said that he was travelling at about 60 kmh going up and coming down the hill. It was put to him that if he had been riding on the left side of the road the accident would not have happened to which he answered that that was not necessarily so. He disagreed, when it was put to him, that he did not see the car suddenly come out of the junction. It was also put to him that the car was about to complete crossing the left half of the road when he first saw it. The plaintiff disagreed as did he to the suggestion that the accident happened because he came over the hill at great speed. In re-examination he said that as he was coming down the hill it was not possible for him to see a car coming from the side road before the car reached the junction and he frankly admitted to not being able to say whether or not he could have avoided the accident had he been travelling on the left side of the road.

The defendant's version of the accident was that she was driving the motor car. Her husband and 2 children were in the car, the husband sitting in the front passenger seat. They were going to Kluang town. She stopped at the junction. She confirmed the existence of the crest which according to her was about 70 to 80 yards from the junction. After stopping at the junction she looked at both sides of the road to see if any cars were coming. Towards the Kluang side she did not see anything. She said:

Nothing was coming. Then I put my first gear and I proceeded... When I proceeded in first gear I heard a sound and I saw something flying.

When she heard the sound of the collision she was shocked. She was then asked:

On which point of the road, how far had you travelled before you heard the sound?

She answered:

When I turned my steering I heard the sound.

She said that all of a sudden she saw something flying. Before that she was going with her first gear and she was going v