The excavator’s driver has appeared in court.
An Asian worker has appeared at the Fujairah Misdemeanour Court on charges of accidentally impaling his African colleague with the shovel of the excavator he was driving.
As per the sheet of indictment, the case unfolded when the duo was on duty at a construction site and the excavator stopped working.
The suspect had to do some maintenance work, but he made a mistake which resulted in one of the excavator’s sharp edges to penetrate the victim’s stomach.
The defendant was arrested and referred to the Fujairah Public Prosecution, and then to the Misdemeanour Court where he denied the charges and affirmed that he was doing his work and did not mean to hurt the victim. “The excavator stopped working and I had to replace its battery.” The victim was doing his work clearing the way ahead of the excavator, he added.
“I did not mean to hurt him,” he added.
The same was affirmed by two eyewitnesses. They testified that the accused was busy replacing the excavator battery.
“Something wrong happened and it resulted in the victim being badly injured,” they told the court.
The victim, however, insisted that the suspect meant to hurt him.
“He turned a blind eye to safety procedures which resulted in me being impaled through my stomach,” the African victim told court.
The court ordered adjournment of the case to next week to issue its ruling