Children's nanny died 10 months after crash

ABU DHABI //An Indonesian nanny who was injured in the accident that killed three Emirati girls a year ago died shortly after she was transferred to a hospital in her hometown in April, embassy officials said yesterday. Nurshaida Parjan, 24, who was originally from Central Java, suffered brain injuries and was treated at Zayed Military Hospital in Abu Dhabi hospital after a car hit her and the children near the Carrefour supermarket on Airport Road on June 29, 2009. She spent seven months in hospital. In December, Indonesian Embassy officials had feared that moving her from Abu Dhabi to Jakarta could cause her further harm.

But two months later, a medical report issued by the hospital said Ms Parjan was fit to travel after coming out of a coma. She was flown to Indonesia by Etihad Airways on February 4, accompanied by a nurse and Lely Meiliani, the first secretary at the Indonesian Embassy. "She was treated at Polri Hospital in Jakarta and later moved to a hospital in Central Java towards the end of March," Hannan Hadi, the head of the consular section at the Indonesian embassy, said yesterday.

"I just learned today that she died in a local hospital in Kebumen, Central Java, shortly after her transfer, around mid-April." Mr Hadi said in February that the civil case against the driver would continue even after Ms Parjan had been sent home. "We already have a lawyer to represent her heirs in court," he added yesterday. "But we have not yet received a special power of attorney." The embassy is awaiting a copy of her death certificate, and a court decision naming her rightful heir.

Mr Hadi said the embassy was pursuing the civil case to ensure that Ms Parjan's heirs receive compensation. The driver of the car, a 20-year-old Emirati man, was jailed for six months and fined Dh5,000 in connection with the deaths. Last summer, prosecutors told the embassy that the driver had paid Dh300,000 in blood money to the family of the three girls. Two other Indonesian nannies, aged 22 and 24, who suffered minor injuries in the accident, are still working for their Emirati employer. Ms Parjan had worked for the family for 18 months.

In July last year, The National launched a campaign to make the UAE's roads safer. The deaths of the three children, Shaikha Salem al Mansouri, four, and her sisters Damayer, six, and Mariam, seven, directly sparked The National's Road to Safety campaign. The campaign sought to analyse the causes of the UAE's high traffic mortality rates, and to bring about changes that protect drivers, passengers and pedestrians.

Officials at various foreign embassies in Abu Dhabi have said careless driving, ignorance of local rules and being in a hurry all contribute to the hundreds of expatriate deaths each year on the UAE's roads. [e-mail]