School ordered to pay up BD49,000 for boy’s death

Manama : A Bahraini court yesterday ordered a private school, in which a five-year-old student died after he was “forgotten” inside a school bus, to pay a compensation of BD49,000 to the victim’s family.

As reported earlier, Al Rawabi School student Rashid Fadhel Buzuhaira, died after being locked inside a school bus for three-and-a-half hours on September 19, 2013, when temperatures crossed 40 degrees Celsius.

It was mentioned in the Bahraini boy’s death certificate that he had died due to panic, fear, crying and fatigue.

Rashid reportedly fell asleep on the bus while on the way to school with his twin brother Abdullah.

None of the students, the bus driver or the supervisor noticed that he was left behind as they all got off the bus.

His twin brother, Abdullah, had reportedly informed the teacher that his brother was sleeping without elaborating more, but none of the school’s administration or staff members asked further questions.

According to court files, the case initially involved eight suspects who were detained and prosecuted. The defendants were the school’s owner, and manager, principal of the school’s nursery, two of the bus supervisors, the driver and the victim’s teacher.

However, only three of them were found guilty, while the others were acquitted as the court considered that the incident had occurred due to an administrative error which cannot be termed as a criminal act.  

The driver was sentenced to two years in prison and the teacher received a one-year jail term, while one of the bus supervisors was sentenced to six months in jail.

The mishap had left the Bahraini society in shock with the Prime Minister HRH Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa immediately directing to promptly investigate the incident and ensure security measures at schools and nurseries. 

The Premier himself had met the victim’s family members and offered condolences to the bereaved.