DUBAI // Four airport workers have been found guilty of negligence over the death of a colleague, who died when a tow-rope hook hit him in the head.
Meer Nassar, from India, died on August 19 last year while working at Dubai International Airport.
Nassar was towing luggage containers that had arrived on a flight from Hong Kong.
A container slipped off the back of his vehicle, so he decided to tow it and hooked on to it with a rope.
But as he drove off the rope snap-ped and sent the hook flying into his head, killing him instantly.
The Misdemeanours Court ruled the four airport workers – the Indians S?P, 36, and S?A, 28; Tanzanian F?A, 32; and Ethiopian A?A, 31 – were negligent in the death.
A?A, a machinery operator, said he was about to take his lunch break when he was told about a falling container.
“When I got there, he was already pulling the container with the rope,” he said. “As I walked away I heard a loud scream, so I returned to see the man injured.”
The operator said the correct procedure for the driver would have been to call for a forklift truck. He added that the dead man was a subordinate of the other three men.
F?A said that when he saw the container fall off the man’s vehicle he immediately called the airport’s safety department and ordered a forklift.
“I realised it was dangerous and asked the driver to step back so I could untie the rope, but it was too tight,” he said.
“I told him not to drive and headed to the back of the vehicle.”
He said that was when Nasser drove off, and the rope snapped.
The four workers were fined a total of Dh165,000.
They were ordered to collectively pay blood money of Dh200,000 to the dead man's family.
salamir@thenational.ae
