No Culpability in School Bus Death Case - Lawyers

Staff at Worood Academy Private School accused of indirectly causing the death of a three-year-old girl on a school bus by not checking absence records, or using licensed buses, did not neglect their duties, the Misdemeanour Court heard on Sunday.

Nizaha Aalaa, a KG-1 pupil at Al Worood Academy Private School, died in October after she was locked in the bus.

According to a report in The National, Hassan Al Riyami, defence lawyer for the school administrator, L, argued that it would have been impossible for her to call the parents of all 1,075 children who were absent on the day of the incident in time to discover the missing girl before she died.

“It would take 17 hours to call 1,075 parents if each phone call lasted one minute."

L is accused of neglecting to check pupil records for absentees.

The defendant's lawyer also argued the school had the right to contact parents at their convenience.

The public prosecution had asked the legal consultant at Abu Dhabi Education Council (Adec), if there was a time frame that the school should contact the parents of missing children. He had said any time during the day.

Mr Al Riyami said that despite the school principal being accused of endangering students’ lives by using unlicensed school buses, the case files show that the bus was actually licensed by the traffic department of Abu Dhabi Police.

Tarek Al Serkal, the defence lawyer for the owner of the bus company, said that standards for school buses, set by the DoT, were still in their first phase and there were no penalties and no inspections or auditing taking place, even after the girl’s death.

He said that no order to keep them from transferring the students had been made and that the bus was insured and the driver was licensed.

The bus supervisor and driver, both also accused, continued to request a defence lawyer from the court according to The National report.

The case has been adjourned until February 8.