Abu Dhabi school bus death case verdicts upheld

Abu Dhabi: The Abu Dhabi Court of Cassation has upheld most verdicts issued by the Court of Appeals in the Al Worood Academy Private School case involving the death of kindergarten student Nizaha Ala’a on board a school bus in 2014.

The Cassation Court ruled that the onus of paying Dh100,000 in blood money to the victim’s family, will be shared by the school’s principal, the bus driver and the bus attendant.

The Court of Appeals had overruled the lower court’s decision to close the school and had acquitted the school’s supervisor and the bus company’s owner from the charges against them. The Appeals Court had also halved the Dh200,000 amount in blood money, which was initially to be paid by all five defendants.

The school bus driver and attendant are serving six-month and one-year jail sentences each respectively.

Nizaha Ala’a died last October as a result of heat exhaustion after being locked inside her school bus for four hours after the vehicle’s uncertified attendant, who was hired by the school as a cleaner, failed to perform a thorough check to ensure that no students were left behind.