By Chong Shin Yen

HER car rammed into a cyclist from the rear so hard that he flew and hit the front windscreen, cracking part of it, before rolling onto the road.

But Cleopatra Wong Yuin Ping, 30, thought the body that smashed into the windscreen was a rotten tree branch that had fallen.

She did not bother to stop and continued driving her car along Holland Road. Wong was also unaware that her victim's bicycle was stuck in the undercarriage of the Lexus ES300 belonging to her father, despite the noise of the bicycle scraping against the road.

The bicycle was dragged for about 2km before it was dislodged.

When Wong, who was a teacher then, reached home, she went to bed.

She realised something was wrong only when she woke up in the morning and found out that the police had towed away the five-year-old Lexus.

Taken to court over the accident, Wong claimed that the soundproofing of the Lexus was so good that she thought the "sounds" she heard were caused by the tree branch.

Last month, she was fined a total of $2,400 - $800 on each of three charges - and disqualified from driving for a year.

She had pleaded guilty to inconsiderate driving, failing to stop after an accident and failing to render assistance after an accident.

The court heard that Wong was driving home along Holland Road at about 5.15am on Oct 19, 2008, when she hit the rear of a bicycle ridden by Mr Muhammad Asri Aris.