Driver found guilty Court asks him to pay Tk 42 lakh to each of 19 Bangladeshi families::::::::::::: A court of Abu Dhabi in the UAE has ordered a lorry driver to pay blood money of 200,000 dirham (Tk 42 lakh) to the family of each person killed in a February road accident. Twenty-one migrant workers including 19 Bangladeshis were killed in the accident on Al Ain-Abu Dhabi lorry road in the United Arab Emirates on February 3. The driver, who was found guilty of manslaughter, was also fined 52,000 dirham and sentenced to a year in prison, reported The National, a newspaper from Abu Dhabi, on June 17. Latiful Haq Kazmi, labour counsellor of the Bangladesh embassy in Abu Dhabi, told The Daily Star that they would soon file a compensation case on behalf of eight out of 19 Bangladeshis killed in the accident. “Once we get necessary documents from the heirs of the remaining 11 victims, we will claim on their behalf too,” he said over the phone. The driver could not actually pay the huge amount of compensation, and therefore the insurance company concerned would pay it, he said. Usually it takes five to six months for the insurance company to pay the compensation, he noted. Kazmi said the employer had by this time paid the service benefits to the bereaved families. The National reported that Judge Shafie Khater Al Nil Khater of Al Ain Criminal Court had issued the order on the case filed by traffic police of Al Ain, the second largest city of Abu Dhabi. The verdict, revealed in records from the Al Ain Criminal Court, has been upheld by the Appeals Court, which noted that the driver had 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 the driver’s lorry exceeded the legal load limit, and the driver did not maintain a safe distance from vehicles ahead of him. This caused the lorry to skid and veer right, hitting the left side of the bus that was carrying 45 workers from their residence to workplace. Both vehicles overturned, killing 19 Bangladeshis, an Indian and an Egyptian.
Posted on: Wed, 19 Jun 2013 08:30:45 +0000
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