SINGAPORE — An engineering consultancy boss was sentenced to six months’ jail on Thursday (July 4) despite submissions by his lawyer that he played no part in the deadly collapse of a flawed Pan-Island Expressway (PIE) viaduct in 2017.

Lawyer Tai Chean Ming, representing Leong Sow Hon, 61, had argued that Leong should receive a hefty S$25,000 fine, but no jail time.

District Judge Hamidah Ibrahim disagreed, imposing a jail term that was less than the jail term of at least nine months sought by the prosecution.

Both the prosecution and Leong’s legal team have filed an appeal against the sentence. Leong has been granted bail of S$15,000 pending the hearing of the appeals.

Leong, a Singaporean, engineer and managing director of Calibre Consulting, had pleaded guilty to failing to check detailed structural plans and design calculations of the viaduct in accordance with regulations.

He had been appointed as an accredited checker by the Land Transport Authority (LTA).

One other charge of falsely certifying that he had carried out the required checks was taken into consideration during sentencing.

The 1.8km bridge links the PIE to Tampines Expressway and Upper Changi Road East. On July 14, 2017, an uncompleted section of the viaduct collapsed, killing Chinese national Chen Yinchuan, 31, and injuring 10 others.

Temporary corbels, or support structures, used to prop up the viaduct had failed during the construction phase. The prosecutor conceded that Leong “played no part” in checks of the temporary corbels.

‘UNIMAGINABLE’ CASUALTIES HAD VIADUCT BEEN OPENED TO TRAFFIC

However, investigations later revealed that Leong did not make original calculations of the viaduct’s 10 permanent corbels, as was required of him.

The court heard that the concrete support structures were so inadequate, they would not have supported more than half of the total load that they were intended to carry.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Yang Ziliang told the court on June 24 that five of the permanent corbels would not be able to take the self-weight of the girder and the deck during construction in the first place, “much less the weight of hundreds of cars that were meant to be driving on the road above them”.

"If the viaduct collapsed after it had been constructed and opened to traffic, the casualties caused would be unimaginable,” he added.

Mr Tai had argued that no accredited checker has had to serve a custodial sentence, and that imposing one could deter an accredited checker in future from “taking (up) their obligations”.

Leong was the first of six parties charged in connection with the viaduct collapse to be convicted and sentenced.

The five other accused have claimed trial, and their hearings will start from Aug 1.

The parties include:

• Or Kim Peow (OKP) Contractors, which had won the contract bid for the viaduct with the lowest tender price. The firm, which was just fined a few days before the 2017 collapse for another lapse in 2015 which had resulted in the death of another worker, faces a fine of up to S$1 million if convicted.

• OKP group managing director, Or Toh Wat, 51, who was allegedly aware of cracks in the corbels but was said to have failed to do proper risk assessments of the affected corbels and take measures to ensure the safety and health of employees.

• OKP’s project director Allen Yee Chee Keong, 49, and project engineer Wong Kiew Hai, 31, who allegedly failed to call for works to be stopped upon discovering cracks, and deleted a WhatsApp conversation between the duo which allegedly contained photographs and information potentially relevant to criminal investigations.

• CPG Consultants’ professional engineer Robert Arianto Tjandra, 45, who approved the design and supervision of the construction works.