DUBAI // A 23-year-old bus driver is in custody following Tueday's crash involving a school bus carrying 30 children on Sheikh Zayed Road .
Sixteen people were injured when the school bus slammed into a company bus near Dubai Media City, but none of the pupils were seriously hurt.
The chief traffic prosecutor, Salah Bu Faroosha, said the driver of the company bus, an Indian man who was now in custody, "stopped suddenly in the fourth lane from the right on a road that has seven lanes after the right-front tyre blew out".
He added: "In his testimony, he said that he went to inspect the tyre for three minutes. Then the school bus arrived."
The school bus belonged to Delhi Private School, Dubai; the other to a company in the Jebel Ali Free Zone.
Prosecutors said the school bus driver slammed on the brakes and skidded for 10 metres before crashing into the stationary company vehicle, pushing it 47 metres into a concrete barrier on the side of the road.
"The company bus driver will be detained for seven days pending investigations, which can be extended, and also while we are awaiting the final outcome of the injured persons involved," Mr Bu Faroosha said.
Eleven of the 18 passengers on the company bus were injured, while five passengers on the school bus were hurt.
School authorities said the bus driver, Ravindran Nair, 45, was still recovering in hospital after suffering a fractured leg. "Doctors have inserted a steel rod into his leg," said a source from the school, who asked not to be identified. "He is conscious and his condition is stable. He has spoken to his family in India. He might be discharged in the next three days."
amustafa@thenational.ae
