A scene of the accident in UAE where 21 people including 19 Bangladeshis were killed
A court in Abu Dhabi has ordered the lorry driver, involved in a road crash killing 21 migrants, including 19 Bangladeshis, to pay blood money of 200,000 Dirham (Tk 42 lakh) to the family of each victim.
The driver, who was found guilty of manslaughter, was also fined 52,000 Dirham and sentenced to a year in prison, reported Abu Dhabi-based newspaper The Nation on June 17.
Judge Shafie Khater Al Nil Khater of Al Ain Criminal Court issued the order on the case filed by traffic police of Al Ain, the second largest city of Abu Dhabi following the accident on February 3 this year.
The verdict, revealed in records from the Al Ain Criminal Court, has been upheld by the Appeals Court, which noted that the driver failed to provide any evidence against the charges.
“Because the causality exists between the fault and the defendants’ injury and death, and because the appellant has admitted to the charge and failed to provide any evidence against the charge, the Appeals Court has upheld the ruling,” a court document said.
The Appeals Court concluded that on February 3 the driver’s lorry exceeded the legal load limit and he did not maintain a safe distance from vehicles ahead of him.
This caused the lorry to skid and veer right causing it to hit the left side of the bus that was carrying 45 workers from their housing to their workplace.
Both vehicles overturned down the slope on the side of the Al Ain-Abu Dhabi lorry road, killing 19 Bangladeshis, an Indian and an Egyptian.
Latiful Haq Kazmi, labour counsellor of the Bangladesh embassy in Abu Dhabi, told The Nation the embassy was set to file a compensation case next week on behalf of eight men who died in the crash.
The embassy wants to begin the case as soon as possible and will add plaintiffs as documentation arrives from Bangladesh.
Dr Ibrahim Al Mulla, of law firm Advocate and Legal, said he is in the process of obtaining paperwork from 24 survivors of the crash to proceed with a civil suit.
Source: The Daily Star
