Another sad drunk driving death sentence

September 30, 2013

The triathlon community was saddened on September 6th when the news arrived that Roy Nasr had been killed during an early morning bike ride in Dubai with 2 friends. One of the other cyclists was injured too, but Roy Nasr took the brunt of the accident and died. GulfNews.org reported that Nasr, 49, and a cycling friend whose name was not immediately available, were hit from behind by a car when the drunk driver swerved past the cyclists’ escort vehicle as they pedaled towards Meydan.

"A cyclist was killed after he was hit by a car on the Safa Park bridge early morning and another cyclist was also injured in the accident and was rushed to hospital,” said Major General Al Zafein, the chief of the Dubai Police Traffic Department on September 6.

On September 27th the United Arab Emirates paper The National reported that the Filipino man who was arrested in that case confessed at the Dubai Traffic Court to five charges – causing death, risking a person’s safety, damaging property, drunk driving and illegal consumption of alcohol and that the sentencing would take place on September 30th.

The sentence has indeed been announced today and it appears somewhat surreal. The admitted drunk driver will be jailed for a month and ordered to pay Dh200,000 (about $55,000) in blood money, plus his license will be suspended for 3 months.

Is that what a life is worth? $55,000 and a month in jail? That sounds absolutely crazy. Andrew Starykowicz also had to pay the $55,000 blood money when he crashed into a volunteer during the Abu Dhabi International Triathlon, but he was not drunk and that person did not die. (he has since gotten that money back)

A 3-month license suspension is standard when being caught driving drunk in the UAE, and the next infraction will see a 6- month suspension while the third one will cost a full year. Really? That, combined with fairly rare random tests seems almost like an invite for folks to drink and drive. There is however a good chance that a person may get jailed there when just being drunk in public, even if no harm is caused.

But this is not just a problem in the United Arab Emirates, cases like this are unfortunately happening around the world and seem to occur in an ever faster frequency, and each time the law appears to be on the side of the motorist even if the cyclist had not caused the accident.

After such ugly cycling death incidents folks on forums, Twitter and Facebook often make comments along the lines of "If you really hate someone you just hope they like riding a bike and then you just wait for an opportunity to run them over, and that is seemingly how you get away with murder or manslaughter." Hopefully though that is far from the truth.

But we cyclists also need to be more cautious and respect the traffic laws and fellow motorists, this way maybe we get more respect from them and hopefully fewer accidents. But the way it is now the law certainly appears to be not on the side of the cyclists, that seems true in the USA and apparently in the UAE, and other countries.

For now though our thoughts are with the family of Roy Nasr.