The Dubai Traffic Court on Thursday sentenced an Omani bus driver who was involved in a crash last month to seven years in jail and ordered him to pay 3.4 million dirham (approximately Rs 6.34 crore) to the families of the victims. He will then be deported, the Gulf News reported.

Seventeen people, including 12 Indians, had died in the bus accident on June 6. Two Pakistanis, an Irish woman and one person each from Oman and the Philippines also died in the accident. The bus, with 31 people on board, was travelling from Muscat to Dubai. It wrongly entered a road that was not designed for buses and rammed into a height barrier, which cut one side of the bus and killed passengers on that side. The bus hit the barrier at 94 km per hour in an area with a speed limit of 40 km per hour.

The court also fined the 53-year-old driver 50,000 dirham (approximately Rs 9.3 lakh) and suspended his licence for a year. During an earlier hearing, the driver had admitted that he had pulled down a sun shade as it was too bright.

“He admitted to lowering the sun shade and didn’t notice the signboards or warning signs, despite having used the road several times before the accident,” Prosecutor Salah Bu Farousha Al Felasi, director of Traffic Prosecution, said. “His reckless driving, not paying attention to the road, and his speeding, caused the disaster.”

The families of the victims told the Khaleej Times that “justice is served” and were reportedly happy about a speedy verdict.