Five to face trial for death of seven in bridge collapse

Dubai: Five suspects have been referred to court for accidentally causing the death of seven workers and injuring 24 others during reinforcing work on a bridge which collapsed in Dubai Marina.

Dubai Municipality's technical report said overloading concrete and heavy iron rods led to the collapse of the bridge.

Dubai's Attorney General, Esam Eisa Al Humaidan, said the Public Prosecution charged the five suspects (whose nationalities haven't been revealed) with accidentally and negligently causing the deaths after they failed to adhere to necessary precautionary measures and not taking on enough procedures for the workers protection while loading the iron and concrete.

The suspects, who work for a top construction company which was setting up the bridge, include B.K., workers' supervisor, his assistant B.S., A.K., safety and security officer, T.S., project engineer and A.L., project manager.

Crane driver let off

Assistant Chief Prosecutor Ahmad Al Hammadi, who conducted the interrogations, said: "Primarily, we had three main suspects, a crane driver, site engineer and workers' supervisor ... We assigned a special committee from Dubai Municipality to investigate the causes of the accident ...The committee's findings said the bridge collapsed due to overloading iron on the second layer of steel in undesignated place and allowing a number of workers to work under the bridge without taking necessary precautionary measures such as using temporary pillars and following an unclear work plan."

Al Humaidan said the crane driver was discharged for lack of subordinate evidence against him while the five suspect will tried before the Dubai Court of Misdemeanour.

"Construction is booming in the UAE in general and Dubai in particular ... this requires construction companies to adhere to and apply necessary precautionary measures to protect workers against such accidents," commented the Attorney-General.

The accident happened last November. Seven workers were killed and 24 others injured in the accident, which happened at 6.20pm. It is believed the accident occurred when scaffolding on a bridge under construction on Al Sufouh Road collapsed.

Mattar Al Tayer, Chairman of the board of the Roads and Transport Authority, said in an earlier statement the accident was caused by human error when steel rods were wrongly loaded.