Dubai: Defence lawyers of a Mwasalat bus driver who hit a height restriction barrier killing 17 passengers in Dubai in June, have claimed that several errors led to the crash that aren’t the driver’s fault, Gulf News reported as per the court hearing on Thursday.

According to the Omani bus driver’slawyer Mohammad Al Saberi an independent expert from Australia provided a report which claimed that there were several obvious errors that led to the crash. “We provided all documents and pictures related to the crash site to a professional engineering consultant and head of a road and safety facility in Australia to examine the incident and provide a report,” Al Saberi told Dubai Court of Appeal.

“His report stated that there were several obvious errors that led to the crash, and they were not the responsibility of the driver,” said Al Saberi. “The expert’s report stated that the distance between the warning signboard and the height barrier was only 12 metres and it should be a minimum of 48 metres,” Al Saberi told judges.

“The report said that the barrier should have been made of a different material that would break into pieces if an impact happened to warn violating cars without causing death and injury.”

He said that the errors made it very hard for the 53-year-old driver to see the warning boards clearly as the sun was shining in his eyes.

Al Saberi told the court that a report prepared by the company that owns the bus which he submitted to the traffic Court found the Roads and Transports Authority (RTA) at fault in eight different instances, but the report was also dismissed.

The driver, who was charged of causing the wrongful death of 17 passengers and injuring 13 others, was sentenced to seven years in jail and was ordered to pay Dh3.4 million in blood money to the families of the victims by Dubai Traffic Court in July.

The trial has been adjourned until October 31.

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