Motorist fined for running over drunken man sleeping under his truck in Dubai

Mohammed Yaseen, Staff Reporter

An Asian truck driver accidentally caused the death of a person after running over him while he was sleeping drunk under the truck. The Dubai Misdemeanors Court fined him Dhs2,000 and ordered him to pay Dhs40,000 in blood money to the victim’s heirs.

The case dated back to November last year when Dubai Police’s operations room received a report on an accident in Ras Al Khor area in Dubai.

A policeman stated in the interrogations that he moved to the scene of the accident for investigation and found that both the truck driver and the victim were responsible for the accident.

The accident, which took place in a sandy yard in a commercial and residential area with a lot of pedestrian and vehicle traffic, necessitated the driver to make sure that there were no people or animals under his vehicle before driving it. Based on this, the driver would bear 20 per cent of the fault, while the victim would bear 80 per cent of the fault as he was sleeping under the truck, a place where it was forbidden to sleep under.

The forensic lab’s report showed that the victim was heavily under the influence of alcoholic beverages. The driver denied the charge of wrongfully causing the death of the victim, pleading that he made sure there were no people under the truck before moving it and that when he drove his truck, he did not realize that he had run over a person due to the size and weight of the truck.

According to the court, the legal blood money would be given in full only if it was proven that the driver was completely at fault. However, as it was shown in the report, the victim contributed to the fault that led to his death by sleeping under the truck.

The court fined the driver Dhs2,000 and obligated him to pay Dhs40,000 in blood money to the victim’s heirs according to his contribution to the fault that led to the victim’s death.