Driver who mowed down pedestrian at 110km per hour gets suspended sentence

A life was left shattered by the dangerous driving of 27-year-old Renald Aquilina, who left the courtroom with a three-year driving ban and suspended sentence after running over a 50-year-old woman at 110km per hour.

Aquilina, from Gzira, caused life-changing injuries to his victim, a bank manager now suffering from short-term memory loss, unable to read at all, eat, or go to the toilet unassisted.

She was unable to testify about the 2016 incident, with her husband telling the court of how they were picking up the pieces of a life shattered by Aquilina’s reckless driving, with the victim now allowed to retain her bank job in a less taxing role but not as manager.

An eyewitness described how Aquilina had driven considerable speed when he 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.

Aquilina was driving his car on Triq ix-Xatt at 8:15pm on 16 September 2016, when he mowed down the pedestrian on the zebra crossing.

Magistrate Yana Micallef Stafrace convicted Aquilina of causing grievous injuries to the victim, with dangerous and reckless driving, at 110km/hr in a built-up area, but handed down a suspended sentence.

She said his age had been a mitigating factor, suspended a one-year prison sentence for four years, suspending his driving licence for three years, and imposing a €1,683 fine.

Inspector Lara Butters prosecuted. Charles Mercieca was defence counsel.