Abu Dhabi: The first hearing in the case of the four-year-old girl, who died after being locked up in a school bus earlier this month, will begin on Wednesday at the Criminal Court of First Instance.
The public prosecution had ordered that the bus driver and supervisor be jailed, pending trial, for their alleged negligence that led to Indian pupil Nizaha Aalaa’s death.
The two of them are accused of not making sure that the vehicle was empty when they parked it at the school premises after dropping off pupils. The school employee in charge of checking the pupil roster for the bus was also jailed.
The Al Worood Academy Private School, where the child studied, is facing legal proceedings as well for failing to alert the child’s parents of her absence at school that day and not cross-checking the bus roster with the class attendance list.
Additionally, public prosecution also pressed charges against the owner of the school bus company for endangering the lives of pupils by providing them with a vehicle not authorised to be used as school transport. Additionally, the bus driver did not have a licence to drive school buses. The company also employed supervisors not qualified to perform the job of bus attendants.
The owner of the company was charged with hiring expatriates not on his sponsorship and employing 10 supervisors without abiding by the rules set for school transport.
According to court documents, the driver admitted to finding the victim lying down near the school bus door at 11.45am. He reportedly told investigators that he had parked the bus and left it after locking its doors without first checking that it was clear of pupils. He, however, denied the accusation of causing the child’s death due to his negligence.
Meanwhile, the bus attendant told prosecutors that the child got on the bus at 6.40am and arrived at the school at 7.45am. After helping pupils get off the bus, she got back on to ensure that nobody was left behind. However, she only went as far as the middle row, she said. She then left the bus, told the driver to leave and handed the list of names to those in charge of the buses.
The third suspect, who was in charge of cross-checking the attendance sheet with the pupils present in class, said that she was only tasked with this responsibility because the supervisor who usually carries out this task was on leave. She admitted not doing so due to several obligations on that day. She also stated that the high number of absences (1,000 pupils out of 2,300 in total) contributed to her failure to carry out that task.
The school’s principal said the bus attendant was responsible for checking the pupils that got on and off the bus by calling out their names. He, however, reportedly admitted to knowing that the buses he hired were not licensed to be used as school transportation and that seven of the vehicles do not abide by the regulations issued by the Department of Transport (DoT) last year. The principal also stated that the owner of the company that ran his school’s buses had told him that the DoT had granted an exception to use the unregulated buses for school transportation.
Finally, the company-owner denied the charges against him adding that he had a contract with the school to transport pupils using his vehicles. He also stated that he had provided the school with 27 buses but did not have permission to use them for school transportation. The suspect told prosecutors that seven of these vehicles including the one that the victim was taking did not abide by the DoT regulations and that the school’s administration was aware of this.
Moreover, he claimed that all the drivers in his company had bus-driving licenses but these did not include stipulations to drive school buses. He first said that all the bus attendants were recruited by the school, but he then changed his statement and revealed that he had hired 10 of them without sponsoring them.
Counsellor Ali Mohammad Abdullah Al Beloushi, acting attorney-general of Abu Dhabi Emirate, said that the court will ensure that justice is served especially to help reduce the pain that the child’s parents have suffered after losing her to heat exhaustion and suffocation.
