By: Selina Lum

A High Court judge on Friday rejected a motorcyclist's appeal against his three-week jail term for reckless riding, warning that deliberate risk-takers on the roads will not be tolerated.

'It has never ceased to amaze me how motorcyclists like the appellant can ride their motorbikes in such reckless disregard for the lives of not just others but also of their own lives,' said Justice Lee Seiu Kin.

He pointed out that motorcyclists and their pillions - not being cocooned in a metal shell like drivers and passengers of other vehicles - are invariably at the receiving end in an accident, whether they are in the right or wrong.

In this case, 27-year-old dim sum chef Edmond Lee Shi Leong ran a red light and slammed into a lorry, resulting in severe injuries for him and his girlfriend, who was riding pillion.

She was hospitalised for 19 days and he, 10 days.

The accident happened at a traffic junction in Ang Mo Kio one morning in January last year.

Lee was later charged with dangerous riding but claimed trial.

Eyewitnesses said Lee was speeding along the wet road as the traffic lights were turning from amber to red.

Lee crossed the stop line after the lights turned red and swerved into an oncoming lorry that had the right of way.

He and his girlfriend were thrown into the air. Lee had internal injuries and rib fractures. His girlfriend, Ms Woo Yoke Foong, had mulitple fractures and bleeding in the brain.

But Lee denied that he had ran the red lights. He maintained that the lights were in his favour, that he was doing 50 kmh at the time, and that he was hit by the lorry.

After a four-day trial earlier this year, District Judge Salina Ishak found Lee guilty.

She jailed him for three weeks' jail and banned him for driving for a year. Lee appealed.

But Justice Lee on Friday said he was more than convinced that Lee had recklessly crossed the stop line after the lights had turned red.