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Muhammad Baig Mirza was a 20-year-old engineering student when the bus he was travelling in from Oman to the UAE met with an accident in Dubai, killing 17 of the 31 passengers, 12 of whom were Indians, the Khaleej Times newspaper reported on Wednesday.
The accident occurred when the bus driver hit an overhead height barrier at the entry point of a metro station parking here, leaving the upper-left portion of the bus destroyed, the report said. The driver, a native of Oman, was sentenced to 7 years in prison and ordered to pay the blood money of Dh 3.4 million to the victims’ families.
According to Mr Mirza’s lawyers, the UAE Insurance Authority, a primary compromise court, initially awarded him Dh 1 million as compensation. The petitioners then approached the Dubai Court of First Instance and obtained a judgment that revised the compensation figure to Dh 5 million, the report said.
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According to the report, Mr Mirza was admitted to a hospital in Dubai for over two months and remained unconscious for 14 days, spending even more months after that in treatment in a rehabilitation centre.
According to the report, he was preparing for his final semester examination as part of his Diploma in Mechanical Engineering and could not complete his studies.
Mr Mirza suffered severe brain damage in the accident, because of which doctors said his chances of returning to normal life were slim.
Additionally, the injuries to his skull, ears, mouth, lungs, arms and legs were also assessed by forensic medical experts.
Based on the report, which said that Mr Mirza had suffered 50 per cent permanent damage to his brain, the UAE Supreme Court directed the insurance company to pay the compensation, the report said.
“We are very happy with the judgement,” Senior Consultant Easa Anees was quoted as saying.