Hence, the charges against Sam, the three-member bench ruled unanimously, were flawed and therefore illegal.

In the course of the six years of court proceedings, there were many who put their two sen worth out there.

There were those against Sam, who wanted her behind bars. There were those who pitied her and wanted her freed of the charge.

There were those who blamed the parents of the whole group and wanted them punished for negligence.

This theme of negligence crops up a lot these days.

The laws are such that parents of children can be charged with negligence should these young ones end up injured or killed, or cause harm to others.

Just before we learned of the decision in Sam's case, the mother of a child who had shot a teacher in Virginia, the United States, was charged with negligence and failing to secure her firearm.

In Gombak, in January, the parents of two children, whom they had left alone at home, were probed for negligence after the 9-year-old girl and her 6-year-old brother were killed in a fire.

Was it, however, negligence in the case of these cyclists? How many times have we heard of children sneaking out of their homes in the middle of the night?

How many of us did it when we were younger? It may not occur as often as, say, in the US, but it does happen here.

As the parents of one of the children who died in the incident put it, which parent would want their child to sneak off in the wee hours of the morning and go riding on a main road?

The parents of those who died will know the love and embrace of their children no longer.

They will forever wonder what they could have done to prevent the crash from happening.

They will grieve till their last breath, as no parent can forget a child lost, even if they accept it as fate.

Sam, meanwhile, will forever remember that she was involved in so horrible an incident. She may not have been at fault, as the courts have ruled, but she will always relive those moments and there are likely going to be times when she doubts herself, wondering what she could have done to prevent it from happening.

What we need to do is move on. What we need is to allow everyone to recover, as much as humanly possible.

More importantly, however, is what lessons we learn from this whole episode.

Parents need to be extremely aware of what their children, or anyone under your guardianship, for that matter, are doing. They need to know what sort of company they keep.

One important thing, perhaps, is building a relationship with your children. You do not have to be your children's best friend. Discipline is important and putting your foot down is crucial. But what is important is to be that someone to whom your children can turn in any situation.

That is the easiest way of keeping yourself in the know when it comes to what your kids are doing.