Ten-year-old girl awarded highest accident claim in the country

KUANTAN: The Sessions Court here on Friday awarded RM9.8mil to a 10-year-old girl who was paralysed waist down from injuries suffered in a road accident almost eight years ago. 

It is believed to the highest amount handed down for an accident claim in the country. 

Sophia Isabel, from Kuala Lumpur, was only two years and three months old when the car driven by her mother was involved in head-on collision with a lorry at the 67th kilometer of Jalan Kuantan-Maran, on Jan 3, 1999. 

Judge Sarimah Hashim read the decision, awarding a total of RM9,821,909.88, including special damages, pre-trial and post-trial costs, and injuries suffered by Sophia. 

Sophia was represented by Mansheel Kaur and was present with her parents. 

She was seen in her wheelchair in the court compound, moving from one place to another while her mother stood at the corridor, watching her antics. 

Neither the defendents, Heng Fook Yong and Engw (sic) Chin Tai of Kuantan Crane nor their counsel, Edward Chin, were present to hear the court's decision. 

The suit was filed in 2001. 

Due to her injuries, Sophia has lost all her senses from waist down and needs help to urinate, pass motion and for other physical activities for the rest of her life. 

On the court's decision, Sophia's father, who did not want to be identified, said he was satisfied but could not help wondering when he would get to see the money. 

On May 19, the same Sessions Court had awarded RM8.75mil to Tim Joel Gurther and Jennifer Lynn Gurther, a magician couple from the US, for injuries resulting from a road accident in 1998.