Ajman: The driver who lost control of his four-wheel-drive and crashed into a fast-food restaurant in Ajman had suffered an epileptic seizure, due to which the accident occurred, Ajman Police said.
The accident took place on Sunday around midnight.
Two people were killed instantly, and five people, including three children, injured, police confirmed.
The driver, a 22-year-old Emirati identified as A.H.S, suffered an epileptic fit in front of McDonald’s as he tried to park his car, which caused him to lose control of the vehicle, sending it crashing into the glass window of the restaurant at an Eppco petrol station in Al Hamidiya area in Ajman, police said.
The two people killed were identified as an Indian woman, 45, and a nine-year-old Arab child.
The injured suffered moderate to major injuries, according to the police, and were transferred to Shaikh Khalifa Hospital for treatment. The grandson of the Indian woman who died is among the injured, Gulf News has learnt.
The three injured children are aged two-and-a-half, five and ten, and the injured adults are an Arab man, 59, and an Asian man, 27, according to Ajman Police.
The driver received the necessary medical treatment before being referred to Al Hamidiya police station for further investigation.
Colonel Abdullah Al Hamrani, deputy chief of Ajman Police, said, “The accident was caused due to the driver suffering a severe epilepsy attack. He lost control of the vehicle after stepping on the accelerator, sending the vehicle crashing into the glass window of a McDonald’s.”
Col Al Hamrani said ambulances, police and paramedics reached the site of the accident in less than five minutes.
The case has now been transferred to the Public Prosecution.
Col Al Hamrani appealed to all drivers suffering from medical conditions that may lead to them losing control of their vehicle, to inform the concerned licensing authorities about their situation, before renewing their driving licence.
This, he said, is important for their own safety and the safety of other road users.
Medical fitness tests
The Roads and Transport Authority, since 2013, has a system in place for professional drivers that requires them to obtain a permit to prove they are medically fit to work as drivers.
According to the RTA programme, all professional drivers — bus, truck, and taxi drivers and chauffeurs — need to pass a mandatory health test, which declares them free from diseases.
“The medical fitness tests look into certain health aspects such as blood pressure, diabetes, eyesight, heart ailment, epilepsy, etc,” an official from the RTA licensing agency said.
Any person with a valid UAE driving licence willing to work as a professional driver has to undergo a medical fitness test at any of the approved health centres and obtain a permit.
There has also been a proposal to extend this system for all road users.
During a meeting with RTA in 2015, health experts called on the government to implement Dubai’s professional driver’s permit at the federal level.
In 2014, one person was killed in an accident caused by a driver who lost control of his vehicle following a cardiac arrest. The medical permits aim at preventing such incidents.
