Fatal accident in River Valley: Driver failed to notice girl running across the road, says coroner

SINGAPORE – The driver of the car that struck and ran over four-year-old Zara Mei Orlic could not have noticed the girl’s presence as she ran across the road, a coroner has found.

In his report into the death of Zara’s relatives, coroner Eddy Tham stated that the girl, who was only one meter tall, was completely obscured by a stationary vehicle in the first lane of Institution Hill in River Valley when the car turned into the other lane.

Australian Zara died in hospital on January 23rd, just hours after the accident, from severe head injuries.

She had crossed the street with the family’s maid, a 32-year-old Indonesian woman, and her two-year-old sister on their way home from kindergarten.

Coroner Tham said the maid carrying the children’s school bags held the younger child’s hand while Zara walked a short distance ahead.

As Zara ran across Institution Hill, the girl did not notice the car coming from her left.

“The maid saw the oncoming traffic in the second lane, but it was too late. By that time the car had already collided with Zara and tragically run over her body,” the coroner said.

The driver, who had picked up her two children from school, was driving along Institution Hill on her way home when she suddenly felt that her car had hit and run over something. When she looked in the rearview mirror, she realized that she had hit a child.

The maid and the driver, a 40-year-old Australian woman, rushed to Zara, who was bleeding heavily from her nose and mouth.

The maid, who has been working for the family since October 2023, called Zara’s father, who rushed to the scene of the accident. A receptionist who worked at a nearby school called the ambulance.

Although the investigating judge did not mention any wrongful crossing of the road in his findings, Traffic Police Inspector (SI) Muhammad Firdaus Suleiman previously testified in court that it was not the first time that the maid had used this route to cross the road with the children on a red light after picking them up from kindergarten.

He said Zara’s parents had reminded her not to cross the road in Institution Hill as it would be illegal to cross the road, but she did so despite their warnings.

SI Firdaus said the maid should have walked about 200m from the preschool on River Valley Road, past Institution Hill without crossing the road, and then walked to the pedestrian crossing.

However, the court heard that the maid had regularly walked with the children around Institution Hill in recent months.

She told police that Zara’s parents reminded her to hold the girl’s hand when they crossed the street. She said she usually held Zara’s hand on the way home to the Aspen Heights condominium, but that day she did not do so.