Dubai, May 12 (Emirates 247) : “I just heard a big bang and saw the vehicle rolling over. The next thing I know is that I am in the hospital,” is how one of the injured Abu Taher narrated the sequence of events on the fateful Saturday morning.
Taher and three others are undergoing treatment at Rashid Hospital. Fifteen of his colleagues are dead.
Speaking to Emirates 24|7 Tahir said his condition is slowly improving although he is still in a lot of pain. When asked if he remembered how the accident occurred, he said: “All of us in the bus were asleep. I don’t know what happened. I was woken up with a shocking sound and saw the vehicle tumbling. After that all I remember is waking up in the hospital,” said Taher.
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Meanwhile, another employee belonging to the same group of labour supply companies said that some workers who were travelling in the mini bus had an argument with the driver just minutes before the bus took off from the labour camp in Umm al Quwain on Saturday.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, he said the driver had been coming late to pick them up in the mornings, resulting in them reporting late to work, thereby losing an hour’s salary.
“The workers were upset about reporting late to work. They had been reporting late to work for the past few days and were upset about it,” said the worker, also a contract employee.
“Work day for some of them starts at 7am and goes on till 7pm with a day’s off on Fridays. One vehicle leaves the camp at 4.30am to Dubai while the second one, also to Dubai, leaves an hour later at 5.30am,” he said.
There were two sets of workers in the bus – some who reported to work at 7am and others who started work at 8am. “It was the 7am crows that were upset,” he said.
“If you report late to work and are not able to punch in by 7am, an hour’s salary, which is about Dh5, gets deducted,” he added.
More than 200 people are employed by the group which has a number of labour supply companies registered by the same owner, the worker said. The men work as contract labourers in various companies in across different emirates.
“Some of us work in nearby emirates like Sharjah and Ras Al Khaima”, he added.
The workers in the camp are still in a state of disbelief. “We all stopped work and got back to the camp after we heard of the accident. We have not gone to work today as well,” the employee added.