The Canadian Parvasi - Issue 102

The International News Weekly world
July 12, 2019 | Toronto
07
Wrong placing of height barrier blamed
for Dubai bus crash that killed 12 Indians
Dubai: The lawyers of
the Omani bus driver, who
rammed the vehicle into a
height barrier in Dubai that
killed 17 people, including
12 Indians, have told a UAE
court that the restriction
bar violated the GCC safety
guidelines.
Twelve Indians were
among the 17 people killed in
the horrific bus accident on
June 7 when the bus, coming
from Oman, wrongly entered
a road not designated for buses
and crashed into a height
barrier that cut the left side
of the bus and killed passengers
sitting on that side.
The other deceased include
two Pakistanis, one
Omani and one Filipina.
Mohammad Al Tamimi,
one of the two lawyers representing
the driver, told the
Dubai Traffic Court that the
distance between the warning
signboard and the height
barrier was only 12 metres,
the Gulf News reported on
Tuesday.
“The mistake is in the
place of the height barrier,
according to the pictures in
the accident scene. The Gulf
Cooperation Council (GCC)
guideline for positioning advance
warning signs states
that if the road’s speed limit
is 60km/h, then the distance
between the signboard or
height restriction chain and
the height barrier should be
60 metres, not 12 metres in
our case,” Al Tamimi told the
court. According to Traffic
Prosecution, the speed limit
on that road is 40 km/h.
The Dubai Police blamed
the 53-year-old Omani driver,
who was moderately injured,
for the accident, saying “at
times a small mistake or negligence
can lead to adverse
consequences”.
“It was too short a distance
to stop the vehicle. It is
not the defendant’s mistake
and not his negligence. Putting
the height barrier in a
wrong place caused the accident,”
Al Tamimi said.
Al Tamimi claimed there
is no proof that the defendant
was driving the bus at 94kph
when the crash happened.
He asked the court to assign
a specialised engineer
from the Roads and Transport
Authority (RTA) to inspect
the crash site and make
a report of the positioning of
warning signboards and the
height barrier, the report
said. Meanwhile, the second
defence lawyer Mohammed
Al Sabri accused the RTA of
eight “mistakes” found by a
report prepared by the company
that owns the bus.
He submitted a copy of
the report to the court and
requested the appointment
of an expert to examine the
accident location and check
if the “mistakes” were committed
by the RTA.
“The reason behind the
accident was the solid height
barrier and its positioning.
The sun at the time of the
accident [5pm] blurred the
signboards to the driver. The
confession of the driver is not
enough to convict him,” Al
Sabri told the judge.
Last week, prosecutor
Salah Bu Farousha Al Felasi,
director of Traffic Prosecution,
said the driver couldn’t
follow the signboards as the
sun shade had obstructed
his view. “He admitted to
lowering the sun shade and
didn’t notice the signboards
or warning signs, despite
having used the road several
times before the accident,”
said Al Felasi.“His reckless
driving, not paying attention
to the road and his speeding,
caused the disaster,” he added.
The verdict in the case is
expected on July 11, while
the defendant will remain
under police custody.
14 killed, 79 injured
of threat from ‘overseas forces’
in Pak train accident
Islamabad : At least 14 people were killed and 79
others injured when a passenger train collided with a
democratic system.” Tsai,
who faces re-election in January,
has repeatedly called
for international support to
defend Taiwan’s democracy
in the face of Chinese threats.
freight train in Pakistan's Punjab province on Thursday,
authorities said.
The accident occurred around 4 a.m. at the Walhar
Railway Station in Sadiqabad.
Rahim Yar Khan Deputy Commissioner (DC) Jamil
Ahmed Jamil said all passengers, onboard the Akbar
Beijing has regularly Express headed to Quetta, had been removed from the
sent military aircraft and train and track clearance operations were underway,
ships to circle Taiwan on
drills in the past few years.
Tsai last went to the United
reports
news.
Jamil
Dawn
added
States in March, stopping that heavy ma-
over in Hawaii at the end of a chinery was being
Pacific tour.
used to remove
a night at a time on transit was looking forward to finding
Seeking to bolster Taiwan’s
passengers who
stops.The US State Department
has said there had been
no change in the US “one-
China” policy, under which
Washington officially recognises
Beijing and not Taipei,
while assisting Taiwan.
more international space
for Taiwan. “Our democracy
has not come easily, and is
now facing threats and infiltration
from overseas forces,”
Tsai said, without naming
any such force.
defences, the United
States this week approved an
arms sale worth an estimated
$2.2 billion for Taiwan, despite
Chinese criticism of the
deal. Taiwan has been trying
to shore up its diplomatic alliances
were stuck in the
train, adding that they were being provided with food
and water.
Rahim Yar Khan DPO Umar Farooq Salamat said
that based on initial reports, when the signal changed
on the track, the passenger train went on to the loop
line where a freight train was parked resulting in the
Speaking at Taipei’s “These challenges are
amid pressure from accident.
main international airport also common challenges China, which has been whittling
Prime Minister Imran Khan offered his condolences
at Taoyuan, Tsai said she
would share the values of
freedom and transparency
with Taiwan’s allies, and she
faced by democracies all over
the world. We will work with
countries with similar ideas
to ensure the stability of the
down its few remaining
diplomatic allies, especially
in the Caribbean and Latin
America.
to the families of the victims.
Minister for Railways Sheikh Rashid Ahmad has
announced compensation of 1.5 million Pakstani rupees
for the families of the deceased.
US House passes Bill removing country-cap on issuing Green Cards
Taiwan Prez leaves for US, warns
Taoyuan (Taiwan): Taiwan
President Tsai Ing-wen
left for the United States on
Thursday on a trip that has
angered Beijing, warning
democracy must be defended
and the island faced threats
from “overseas forces”, in a
veiled reference to China.
China, which claims selfruled
and democratic Taiwan
as its own and views it
as a wayward province, has
called on the United States
not to allow Tsai to transit
there on her overseas tour.
She is spending four
nights in the United States
in total, two on the way there
and two on the way back on
a visit to four Caribbean allies.
Tsai will go to New York
on her way there, and then is
expected to stop in Denver on
the way back.
Tsai’s time in the United
States will be unusually long,
as normally she spends just
Washington: The US
House of Representatives
has passed by an overwhelming
majority a legislation to
remove the seven per cent
country-cap on Green Card
applicants, a development
which could end the agonising
wait of tens of thousands
of talented professionals
from countries like India
who have sought permanent
residency.
The bill, when signed
into law, increases the percountry
cap on family-based
immigrant visas from seven
per cent of the total number of
such visas available that year
to 15 and eliminates the seven
per cent cap for employmentbased
immigrant visas.
A Green Card allows a
non-US citizen to live and
work permanently in America.
Indian IT professionals,
most of whom are highly
skilled and come to the US
mainly on the H-1B work visas,
are the worst sufferers of
the current immigration system
which imposes a seven
per cent per country quota
on allotment of the coveted
Green Card or permanent legal
residency.
The bill titled ‘Fairness
for High-Skilled Immigrants
Act of 2019’ or ‘HR 1044’ to
eliminate the per-country
numerical limitation for employment-based
immigrants,
to increase the per-country
numerical limitation for family-sponsored
immigrants,
and for other purposes, was
passed on Wednesday by an
overwhelming 365-65 votes in
a 435-member House.
Lifting the per-country
cap would mainly benefit
professionals from countries
like India, for whom the wait
for Green Card is more than
a decade. Some of the recent
studies have said the waiting
period for Indian IT professionals
on H-1B visas is more
than 70 years. The bill also
establishes transition rules
for employment-based visas
from Financial Year 2020-22
by reserving a percentage of
EB-2 (workers with advanced
degrees or exceptional ability),
EB-3 (skilled and other
workers), and EB-5 (investors)
visas for individuals not
from the two countries with
the largest number of recipients
of such visas.
Of the unreserved visas,
not more than 85 per cent
would be allotted to immigrants
from any single country,
Congressional Research
Service (CRS) said.
The bill, however, has
to be passed by the Senate,
where the ruling Republican
Party enjoys a majority,
before it can be signed into
law by US President Donald
Trump.