“We Malaysians are horrified by the new sentence of Sam, where facts supported that she was a responsible driver, the real victim in this accident,” said the creator of the petition, a user named Wan Junaida.
With the hashtag #FreeSamKeTing, the petition said Sam was earlier freed from the charge of reckless driving with the Magistrates’ Court noting that she was not under the influence of alcohol, was not using her phone, and had her seatbelt on while driving.
“This proved that she was driving responsibly and carefully, but it was a dark, hilly, and winding road where the driver could not foresee that there would be a bicycle gang on the road at 3am in the morning.”
Instead, the petition said it was the teenagers and their parents who were the cause of the incident, as they were roaming the street on their bicycles in the middle of the night.
“We do not accept this judgment, and seek to have her sentence overturned, so as to not rob the bright future of a young, innocent Malaysian citizen,” the petition said.
The petition has gained over 500,000 signatures at the time of writing.