6 months’ jail for volunteer instructor over 2021 death of ACS(I) boy who fell from rope course

A volunteer outdoor activities facilitator was sentenced to six months’ jail over the death of a 15-year-old Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) student following an incident at a high-element course in 2021.

On Jan 15, Muhammad Nurul Hakim Mohamed Din, 23, pleaded guilty to one charge of causing grievous hurt to Jethro Puah Xin Yang by committing a rash act which endangers human life.

He had failed to do a physical check on Jethro’s harness, resulting in the boy’s leg loops getting unbuckled after he fell from the high-element course.

Hakim was previously charged with causing death by a rash act not amounting to homicide, but his charge was amended. It was not stated in court why this was so.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Ng Jun Chong said that on Feb 3, 2021, Jethro and his schoolmates were at the Safra Adventure Sports Centre in Yishun to take part in outdoor activities organised by the school to promote team building.

Hakim, who was an unpaid volunteer for outdoor adventure training company Camelot, conducted a safety briefing for Jethro and his schoolmates. The briefing included instructions on how to wear the helmet and harness, and how the participants should react if they fall off the high-element course.

Hakim also held the role of dispatcher that day, for the first time. As the dispatcher, he was required to conduct final checks on the students to ensure their helmets and harnesses were properly buckled and adjusted before they take part in the high-element course.

Even though he was supposed to check the harness physically to ensure the loops were securely threaded through and the buckles were tightened, he did not do so for Jethro and three other students that went before Jethro.

Instead, he only visually observed the harness, thinking that it appeared secure.

The prosecutor said that before Jethro went onto the obstacle course, he looked nervous and told Hakim that he was afraid of heights.

Hakim then encouraged him and told him that if his classmates could do it, he could too.

Jethro went on the obstacle course and finished the first one without issue.

At 1.30pm, he slipped from the second obstacle course, which required participants to hold onto a rope while walking sideways on a metal cable.

Jethro was suspended by his harness and he struggled.

An instructor told him to hold onto his safety line and the rope of the obstacle, put one foot onto the foot cable and pull himself up. The boy tried that but could not pull himself up.

Another instructor at the scene saw that the leg loops on Jethro’s harness were loose and had gone up from his thighs to his waist.

The two instructors then got to him and tried to hoist him up but failed.

Both of Jethro’s leg loops then became unbuckled, and he hung from the shoulder straps of his harness by his armpits.

When a teacher at the ground level told him to stop struggling, he replied that he was suffocating, said the DPP.

Hakim, who went through the obstacle course to get to Jethro, told the boy to hold onto his forearm. At this point, Hakim saw that the boy’s face was pale and that his fingers had turned blue.

He could see that the boy was panicking and heard him gasping for air.

Eight minutes after falling, Jethro lost consciousness.

A rescue bag was deployed to belay him to the ground and he was lowered down more than half an hour after his fall.

At that point, he had stopped breathing and had no pulse. 

He was taken to Khoo Teck Puat Hospital and died the next day from multi-organ failure following compression of the neck and traumatic asphyxia.

Seeking six to eight months’ jail, DPP Ng said that as the dispatcher, Hakim was the last person to check that the deceased’s harness – “the only thing that stands between a participant and grievous injury or even death” – was properly attached before sending him onto the obstacle course.

“It was his solemn responsibility to ensure that the deceased’s leg loops were properly buckled... but he failed to do so.”

In mitigation, defence lawyer Azri Imran Tan of I.R.B. Law said his client had exercised a poor split-second judgment call in the midst of a dynamic exercise, as opposed to an offender who took a deliberate and cavalier approach to risk.

Mr Tan sought not more than four to six months’ jail for Hakim, adding: “While Hakim was aware that not doing a physical check would possibly entail risk of endangering the deceased’s life, he was not alive to the exact or obvious danger.”

The defence lawyer added: “It was something he never imagined could have happened, and certainly something he never wished for or wanted. He is deeply remorseful knowing that his actions have led to the loss of a young life.

“Not a day goes by without him thinking about the incident, what he or his other instructors could have done differently, and whether the life of the deceased could have been spared.”