Dubai: A speeding woman motorist and a man who was driving at low speed have been jointly found liable for the death of the man’s two-year-old daughter, his pregnant wife and her five-month-old foetus, an official said on Tuesday.
The 37-year-old Gulf national woman was driving at a speed higher than 120km/h before she rammed into a vehicle driven by a 34-year-old Asian man, who was driving at a speed lower than the minimum speed of 60km/h on Emirates Road in December.
“The accident was tragic and horrific enough to cause the death of a pregnant mother and her two-year-old daughter. This is the second accident of its kind since 2009. I strongly advise women in the third trimester of pregnancy to avoid driving as much as possible or to sit in the back seat which is more spacious than the front seat … for their own safety and that of their unborn babies,” Prosecutor General Salah Bu Farousha, Head of Dubai Traffic Public Prosecution, told Gulf News on Tuesday.
His comments came after the Traffic Misdemeanours Court fined the woman Dh10,000 and the man Dh6,000 for their liability in the accident.
Records said the accident happened when the 37-year-old woman failed to keep a safe distance between her speeding car and the vehicle of the man.
The man’s wife, her foetus and their daughter died in the accident.
Presiding judge Omar Abdul Aziz Karmastagi also ordered the woman defendant to pay Dh252,000 in blood money to the victims’ successors [the male defendant]. The judge also found the man partially responsible for the three deaths and ordered him to pay Dh168,000 as his share of the blood money. The two convicts’ driving licences have been suspended for three months, according to the primary ruling that remains subject to appeal within 13 days.
“According to primary interrogations that were carried out by Senior Traffic Prosecutor Rashid Al Ghemlasi, the woman defendant drove recklessly and failed to maintain a safe distance between her car and the other defendant who drove slower than usual. The duo was found jointly responsible for the accident … the woman was held 60 per cent responsible and the man was found 40 per cent responsible. In the arraignment sheet, we asked the court to apply the Traffic Law and Sharia. A person has to pay 10 per cent of blood money for accidentally killing a foetus, according to Sharia [blood money amounts to Dh200,000 in UAE],” Bu Farousha said in a media statement issued on Tuesday. In May 2009, a Lebanese woman was fined Dh2,000 and ordered to pay Dh20,000 in blood money after she caused the death of her foetus in a car crash.
“All pertinent laws and rules have been made to protect road users. We constantly try to protect all road users and also foetuses, who have rights to live and that right is protected by law. Pregnant women, who are about to deliver, should protect their and their foetuses’ lives and avoid driving as much as possible except in emergencies. It is always safer and advisable that they sit in the back and push the front seat forward to make more space. According to Sharia, a foetus which dies in a mother’s uterus is entitled to 10 per cent [known as Al Ghurra] of the Dh200,000 blood money,” Bu Farousha told Gulf News.
