Victims of reckless driving are the losers in Malta’s justice system

It was a regular evening for Peter Cauchi, who while working abroad decide to call on his wife with a Skype call. She was on her way out to meet a friend. Peter wished Moira a good time, hung up, and it was the last time he would ever speak to her. Hours later, a phone-call changed his life forever. 

“It was around 10:00pm, my kids called. They told me, ‘Mummy is in hospital, she is in the ITU, you better come back to Malta,” Peter recalls. 

On the evening of 16 September 2016, Moira Cauchi was crossing Triq ix-Xatt in Gżira after pressing the traffic light button and waiting for cars to stop. It was then that Renald Aquilina, aged just 20, recklessly sped through the second lane of the road at a breakneck speed of 110kmph. He struck Moira, the hapless victim flung across to the door of one of the restaurants. An eyewitness in court described how Aquilina hit the woman at a pedestrian crossing, his victim catapulted into the air, across the central strip, before hitting the ground on the other side of the Gżira seafront. A nurse and doctor who happened to be dining there quickly came to her aid, while others called for an ambulance.  

Today, the reality that Peter Cauchi returned to on that fateful day is a harsh one. Moira suffered a brain trauma, leaving her unable to speak properly, suffering from short-term memory loss. She had to relearn everything from scratch, even how to recognise her family. 

“My wife is 80% disabled... the brain trauma is what affected her the most. She cannot speak properly; she repeats things a lot and she has short-term memory loss. She had to learn everything... it’s like having a baby... she did not even recognise me... or the kids,” Cauchi says of his wife. 

Moira and Peter before the accident. (Photo: Facebook)

Moira would spend nine months inside Mater Dei Hospital before being admitted for rehabilitation to Karin Grech Hospital, where she slowly regained her strength with the help of her friends and medical professionals. A drive out to familiar places and to see friendly faces helped her slowly jog her memory, but the accident took a toll on everyone. Relatives spent days by her side: Moira’s mother, at 70, visited every day by bus, staying at her side from 7:30am until the ward was closed. Her son had to postpone his wedding, while her daughter finalised her university education – the accident overshadowed their lives. 

A bank manager, Moira was supported by her employer who consented to have their former head of loans in a new position at the bank. “The bank she worked for was incredibly supportive. Even though she could no longer function in her same role as a manager, it was more of therapy for her to be back at the job.” But after the COVID pandemic hit in 2020, Moira Cauchi had to retire after 35 years in the workforce. 

Justice system ‘total failure’ 

For the Cauchis, the worst part of the ordeal is the failure of the justice system in bringing about the reparations they deserve. It took almost seven years to get a decision from the courts, and the punishment for the driver responsible for the accident was insufficient.  

From the beginning of this legal battle, lawyers informed Paul that the maximum sentence Renald Aquilina, now 27, could get was just one year in prison, and then even get it suspended for four years. 

“The system is a total failure,” Cauchi says. “It’s not because she is my wife. We’ve had multiple accidents like this... of people thinking they are some sort of god, thinking they can get away with anything.” 

Cauchi says that if nothing changes, these accidents will only become more frequent in the face of such light-hearted punishments. “The government must sit down and think about this seriously. If not, we will only have more accidents, because abusive motorists know that the law is weak and that they can practically do whatever they want.” 

The family was disappointed that Magistrate Yana Micallef Stafrace, in meting out her decision on the incident, had included Aquilina’s young age as a mitigating factor when she handed him her one-year prison sentence suspended for four years. Even Aquilina’s driving ban will last just three years, with a mere €1,683 fine. 

“If you are old enough to get a licence, you are old enough to be responsible of your driving,” Peter Cauchi says, ruing the fact that the Maltese justice system views cars as a merely pleasurable activity, rather than the weapon it can be. 

“I am not expecting much more from the justice system, but this will not end here. My lawyers are exploring other possibilities.”