Bus driver fined, disqualified from driving for 2013 speeding accident

Inspector Robert Said Sarreo had told Magistrate Doreen Clarke how 31 year-old Ivan Gauci had been driving a King Long-model bus at around 5:30am in Triq Wied Il-Ghajn, Zabbar in August 2013 when it collided with a parked truck.

The impact was so great that the parked truck was shoved over the pavement and into the façade of the house in front of which it had been parked, the inspector told the court.
 
Gauci did not contest that the women were injured as a result of the incident, but argued that he was driving prudently at the time of the accident, which he attributed to the fact that the truck, being larger than most vehicles, was jutting out from the box in which it was parked - immediately behind a blind corner, in the pitch black darkness.
 
He claimed that he had been faced with the truck so suddenly that he did not even have time to engage the brakes. Gauci explained that it was dark at the time and the truck did not have its hazard lights on. With some help from his lawyer, he recalled that he had been travelling at 50km/h.

A defence witness,  Marvic Camilleri, who was riding in the bus at the time, corroborated the driver’s account.

The court was not convinced by his testimony however, pointing out that at 6 am, it would not be very dark, noting that pictures taken approximately fifteen minutes after the incident showed it was well lit by then.
 
Additionally, the court noted that the “bend” in question was simply a slight deviation and that for all intents and purposes, the road was a straight one.
 That he was driving at 50km/hr was “impossible”, given the impact and damage caused to the parked vehicle, said the court.
 
Camilleri’s account was also discredited due to discrepancies between his version and photographic evidence provided by the prosecution.
 
The court found Gauci guilty, noting that it was a well established principle that speed can be considered excessive- even when it was within the limits laid down by law- when it exceeds the limits dictated by prudence and environmental factors at the time.