UAE: Man killed after parked truck runs over him; driver jailed

The driver of a heavy vehicle has been sentenced to prison, and ordered to pay Dh200,000 in blood money, for parking the vehicle on a steep road without pulling the handbrake.

The vehicle began moving, and ended up running over a 54 year-old Asian man sitting on the shoulder of the road. The man sustained serious injuries during the incident, eventually succumbing to them.

Traffic Misdemeanours have sentenced the accused to one month in prison and ordered him to pay Dh200,000 in blood money. The Ras Al Khaimah Partial Commercial Court also ordered the accused, his insurance company, and the company that owns his vehicle, to jointly pay Dh90,000 as compensation for the victim's family – his wife, and his two children.

The victim's children filed the case for the compensatory money citing the grief, pain and mental anguish they suffered due to the loss of their father – the head of the family – as the primary reason. They added that they had now lost their sole source of income, and initially requested Dh150,000 in compensation.

Their attorney confirmed that the family was entitled to request additional compensation on top of the blood money, as long as a penal verdict found the perpetrator guilty of causing the victim's death. The joint responsibility of the accident rests with the owner of the vehicle as well, the court found, as the accused was in her employment at the time of the accident.

The Partial Commercial Court ruled that the victim's wife and two children were indeed entitled to compensation, and the defendants were ordered to pay an additional Dh90,000 on top of the blood money: Dh50,000 to the widow, and Dh20,000 each to the victim's two children.

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