Motorist cleared of negligence in 2014 head-on collision

A motorist whose wife and son were grievously injured in a head-on collision with a bus in December 2014 has been cleared of responsibility for the accident.

The passengers in the car driven by Carmel Micallef had been left in danger of death after he lost control of the vehicle at Saqqajja when he was forced to brake suddenly while driving in the rain with low visibility. Micallef's van had skidded onto the opposite lane and struck an oncoming bus.

Micallef had been charged with having caused grievous injuries through negligence and slightly injuring the bus driver. He was also accused of speeding, reckless driving, driving against the direction of traffic and damaging the bus.

The bus driver had testified to have been driving towards Dingli when he suddenly saw Micallef's van in his lane, heading straight for him.

Micallef had told the court how he had been driving from Rabat to Attard in poor weather conditions. He had had to brake hard when stationary vehicles hove into view directly ahead of him, which caused his van to skid into the other lane and oncoming traffic. There was no way he could escape the impact with the bus, he had told magistrate Caroline Farrugia Frendo in September.

The court noted that his testimony last September had been consisted with that which he had tendered during the magisterial inquiry. That inquiry had concluded that Micallef had likely lost control when he took evasive action after going around a bend and finding a column of stationary cars in front of him.

Transport Malta had withdrawn its claims in the interim and the only other witnesses were his wife and son, who had chosen not to testify.

The court, after taking the circumstances into account, concluded that Micallef was not at fault as he could not have foreseen the accident, and cleared him of all charges.

Lawyer Arthur Azzopardi was defence counsel.