Abu Dhabi: Two supervisors and two technicians of a government department have been convicted of causing the death of an Emirati child after she fell from her school bus last year, it was announced on Tuesday.

The defendants were accused of neglecting their job of performing maintenance on the school bus, which caused the child falling through the emergency exit on to the street while the bus was making a turn, court papers stated on Tuesday.

The head of technical operations, maintenance supervisor, vehicle electrician and mechanic have each been sentenced to one year in prison and ordered to pay blood money to the child’s parents.

A source at the court said that the incident took place in the Bain Al Jisrein (between the bridges) area in Abu Dhabi.

The Court of Misdemeanours had previously convicted the school bus driver of causing the death but the Public Prosecution re-opened the case file. Evidence then revealed that the driver had no control over the emergency exit which operated automatically and he was not warned that it was open due to a technical glitch.

The system being used for the emergency exit had not undergone maintenance since the bus came into use 10 years ago, court documents revealed.

The defendants were responsible for regularly performing maintenance according to monthly and yearly schedules and their failure to do so led to the death of the child, the court ruled. After performing tests on the vehicle, experts also concluded that the system was not functioning at the time of the incident as no audio or visual alarm went off to alert the driver that the door’s ‘safety’ lock had been removed.

In 2014, a kindergarten student at Al Worood Academy Private School was left on board her school bus for four hours before she was found dead from heat exhaustion.

She had been left behind after the bus attendant failed to thoroughly check whether any children were onboard after the bus had parked at the school premises for the day.

The Cassation Court eventually ruled that the Dh100,000 in blood money will be shared among the school’s principal, the bus driver and the bus attendant who were all charged with neglect that led to the child’s death.

The school bus driver and attendant were sentenced to six months and one year in jail respectively.