Dubai:
A Dubai court on Thursday decreased the seven-year sentence of an Omani bus driver who crashed the car into a low-clearance sign following getting into a restricted lane, killing 17 people today, which includes 12 Indians, in 2019.
The Dubai Court of Appeal decreased the sentence of the 55-year-old driver to one year in jail and also withdrew his deportation order, the Gulf News reported.
The driver nevertheless have to spend a USD 13,612 fine and some USSD 925,660 in blood dollars to the households of the victims.
The driver had received a seven-year sentence from the Dubai Traffic Court in July 2019. The court had also ordered to deport the driver. His licence was suspended for one year.
The tour bus packed with Eid vacationers was heading from Oman’s capital Muscat to Dubai in June 2019 when the driver wrongly entered a road not designated for buses and rammed into a metal barrier, killing 17 people today, which includes 12 Indians, two Pakistanis, an Irish, Omani and Filipina. Several other people have been also injured.
Among the 31 people today on the bus have been also citizens of Bangladesh, Germany and the Philippines.
The 54-year-old driver had accepted duty for the crash, saying he was momentarily blinded by the sun’s glare. He later appealed the verdict, arguing that the steel barrier was wrongly placed, according to neighborhood media reports.
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