Woman ordered to pay €2,000 in damages over 2009 traffic accident

A woman has been ordered to pay roughly €2,000 in damages after a Court of Appeal found her to be at fault.

The traffic accident took place on 6 May 2009 on Triq is-Sidra, Swieqi. Initially, an Arbitration Tribunal found the woman, Mary Ann Cachia, not guilty of causing the accident, however this was appealed by Clayton Calleja, who was also involved in the crash.

Cachia was pulling out of her driveway when Calleja crashed into her. Cachia claimed that she had already pulled out of her drive and that her car was already aligned with the road and ready to set off. Cachia said that this was when Calleja came speeding down the street and crashed into her car.

The Arbitration Tribunal accepted this version of events and cleared her of any wrongdoing. Calleja appealed this decision, which was heard before Mr Justice Anthony Ellul in the Court of Appeal.

In its considerations, the court observed that Cachia’s claim that she had already pulled out of her drive in full and was positioned properly on the road does not hold up. Mr Justice Ellul said had that been the case, the damage to her car would have been at the rear end where the trunk of the car is, rather than towards the rear passenger side, close to the back wheel.

This indicates that she was in fact pulling out of the drive as people were driving through the “principal arterial street”. The court remarked that the damage to both cars was substantial.

Mr Justice Ellul remarked that since there was a sleeping policeman very close to the where the incident took place, he accepted the woman’s claim that Calleja was driving excessively fast, most likely exceeding the 50km/hour limit.

The court ruled that Cachia is mainly at fault, as she had, “disrupted the flow of traffic when cars were passing through the principal road”.

Due to the speed at which the other driver was going, he was found to be 30 per cent at fault. In view of this, she was ordered to pay €2,038.60 in damages, while court expenses are to be shared 70 per cent by the woman, and 30 per cent by the man.