Driver, attendant, supervisor get three years jail in school bus death in Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi: Jail time and fines were issued to those found guilty in the case of four-year-old Nizahaa Ala’a, who tragically died in her school bus last October.

The Abu Dhabi Court of Misdemeanour sentenced the Filipina bus attendant F.A., the Pakistani bus driver, A.L., and the Lebanese school employee, L.A., to three years in jail in addition to a Dh20,000 fine each for negligence.

The order for closure of the Al Worood Academy Private School still stands and the institution will have to pay Dh150,000 in total for both charges against it. These include causing the wrongful death of the child and endangerment of schoolchildren on board its buses.

The Indian transport company owner, R.A., will serve a sentence of six months in addition to a fine of Dh500,000 for hiring unlicensed personnel.

No order for deportation has been issued for the defendants after they complete their sentences and all except the last offender will have to pay blood money for the child’s death.

The incident occurred in October last year when the victim was found dead in her school bus around three hours after the vehicle had reached the school.

The medical examiner who performed the autopsy on the victim revealed that she was found with bruises on the internal left side of her head. These were likely caused by falling or hitting her head, he told the court earlier.

As a result, five people who are believed to have been involved in the incident were apprehended and stood trial in December 2014.

According to court records, F.A. admitted to prosecutors that she had failed to conduct a thorough check of the bus including its back seats before she ordered the driver to lock the vehicle. In turn, A.L. told the court that he was given instructions prohibiting him from making contact with the students.

Meanwhile, L.A. said that she should not go to prison for taking on the role of two of her colleagues who were absent on the day. The school’s principal expressed his sincerest condolences to the family of the victim.

A lawyer who was defending L.A. and A.A. said that the principal had attempted to contact the Abu Dhabi Education Council (Adec) to negotiate a change in the transport company he had hired and to ask for a raise in school fees to allow him to do so.

“Two weeks prior to the incident, he had even contacted the Community Police, asking them to come and inspect his vehicles and see whether they are up to standard and to then issue a report on this basis. As a principal, his job should be to ensure that the children get the best education, not to take over transportation responsibilities as well, as Adec has instructed,” Gulf News reported the lawyer as saying earlier.

The driver and bus attendant had been imprisoned since the incident and had no lawyer representing them at court.

The verdict is subject to appeal.