ABU DHABI // A man accused of driving recklessly and injuring another motorist said he was driving at 60kph and that the other car caused the crash.
R K, an American, had just hired a Hummer from an agency and was driving carefully to drop it home, his lawyer said. “Throughout the previous year he did not commit any traffic violations.”
R K claimed that he was driving on a narrow internal street in Khalifa City A and as he drove over a speed bump, the victim, driving a Mercedes, suddenly changed her lane and appeared in front of him and hit the brakes.
“He tried to avoid the accident by moving to the left but it didn’t work. His car flipped and he hit the lamp post,” his lawyer said.
“Even the victim in her statement said that she was driving in the middle lane and suddenly turned to the right.”
But R K was blamed for causing the accident and injuring the woman. The first instance court ordered him to pay a Dh5,000 fine.
He denied the charge in the Appeals Court and said the accident plan prepared by the police was “completely wrong”.
He said the lamp post was on the speed bump and not on the road, as the plan showed.
His attorney said the previous court had assigned a committee to recreate the sketch, but they did not visit the site, nor do any additional research. “They just took the info that was already provided by the police,” the lawyer said.
R K said the police were showing photos of the accident to the victim’s family in hospital and that “those pictures did not make it to the judge”.
He also said the police acted inappropriately when they brought the victim’s sister to him in hospital, where he was being treated for a broken leg. “The police came into the emergency room while I was naked, they pushed my wife aside,” he said.
“The sister started screaming at me, saying: ‘Why did you do this to my sister?’.”
A verdict will be announced on January 28.
hdajani@thenational.ae
