Motorist ordered to pay Dh200K in blood money
abu dhabi — A motorist who ran over two boys and killed them as they crossed a road near Yas Mall has been told to pay blood money of Dh100,000 for each of the boys.
The Abu Dhabi Appeal Court cancelled an earlier ruling by a lower court, which cleared the European man of accidentally causing the death of the two boys.
The Appeal Court judge ordered the driver to pay Dh100,000 in blood money for each of the children to their parents after he was found guilty of accidentally causing death of the boys.
Official court documents stated that the expat from a European country accidentally mowed down and ran over the two Emirati boys as they crossed a busy road on Yas Island last year.
Prosecutors said the boys, aged 12 and 13, were crossing the road located near Yas Mall and from a non-pedestrian crossing area along with their younger brother.
The motorist who was coming from Dubai didn’t notice the teens as they suddenly entered the road and accidentally knocked down two of the boys and ran over them.
The police said the two boys died on the spot while their younger brother escaped the crash unhurt.
The boys’ father said his children had been dropped at Yas Mall by their elder sister who was apparently going for an exam at a certain school near Yas Island in the morning, and had to pick them later.
“And when the boys went to the mall’s entrance, a security guard told them that they couldn’t enter because the time for opening the mall had not reached,” the Emirati father said in the court on Sunday.
“They then went to walk around when they were hit by the car.”
The Abu Dhabi public Prosecution had charged the European man with accidentally killing the boys in a road accident.
Abu Dhabi Court of First Instance had earlier acquitted him on grounds that the boys had suddenly entered the road and crossed from a non-pedestrian crossing area. Prosecutors, however, challenged the verdict stressing that it wasn’t proper to acquit the deriver after killing two teens in a road crash.
At a previous hearing, the man admitted to hitting the boys but stressed that it was unavoidable accident as the boys suddenly entered the road at a bad spot, which was not meant for pedestrian crossing.
“I was driving from Dubai head and within the acceptable speed limits when the boys suddenly entered the road,” said the European.
“I was in the fourth lane and I tried so hard to use the breaks and swerve so I can save the children but unfortunately I couldn’t as the car reached them.”
ismail@khaleejtimes.com