10-year-old thrown ten feet into the air by car, court hears

A court has heard a British driving instructor describe how a ten-year-old pedestrian was thrown ten feet in the air after being hit by a car near the Luxol grounds.

Jessica Davis and her husband John were testifying this morning in the compilation of evidence against Turkish-born Fatih Pancar, who is charged with the involuntary homicide of young Rodwan Aghil on St. Andrew’s Road, St. Andrews on 30 May this year.

Aghil died in hospital after being hit by a red Peugeot, driven by Pancar, near the Luxol grounds at around 3:30pm that Saturday afternoon.

This morning, the Davis couple described the moments immediately before and after the road accident which claimed Aghil’s life. They had been heading home on the Coast Road in the direction of Santa Venera. As they were going round the bend near the Forum Hotel, they said, a red Peugeot overtook them in a dangerous manner.

“A red Peugeot was tailgating us. We were going at around 50 km/h. I remember my wife remarking ‘what a knob’ as he overtook us, but we thought nothing more of it.

"Then, when we had just passed the traffic lights, which were flashing amber, I heard a bang and a screech and looked up. I saw the boy being tossed in the air.”

The Peugeot immediately swerved to the right after the impact and was already on the wrong side of the road, said John Davis.

Mrs. Davis was briefly overcome by emotion as she described the incident. “The other car was mainly on the right-hand lane and swerving, near the lotto office. Then all of a sudden as I looked up, the car in front of us swerved to the right and I saw the boy somersault about ten feet up in the air.

"My husband told me not to look. We stopped and these two ladies, who we later learned were nurses, came to help but...” she trailed off into sobs.

Answering a question put to her by Magistrate Carol Peralta, the driving instructor said that the stretch of road where the accident took place had a single lane, but that “they tend to double up there.”

Asked separately by defence lawyer Jason Azzopardi, both witnesses replied that they had not seen the boy dash across the street before being hit by the car.

Azzopardi asked the woman to describe the road markings. “It was a solid white line and besides, you don’t overtake on a bend,” she replied.

“The driver of the Peugeot got out of the car, crying and screaming hysterically”, said the witness, “Then, when the nurses came to assist, he laid down on his front.”

The passenger in the Peugeot however, stressed several times that the traffic lights were green when his friend had driven through them. Ersin Hulur said that they were on their way back to Gzira after going to stock up on drinks for the accused’s shop. Asked how the accused was driving, he replied that is was “normal,” saying they were going at “maybe 50, maximum 60 km/h” when pressed by the magistrate.

He said that he was talking to Pancar when they passed the traffic lights and recalled flinching as something hit the windscreen. “The boy came from nowhere,” said the witness, also confirming that he had not seen anybody on the pavement at the time.

In broken English, he said that he was shaking so much after the incident that he was unable to fish his mobile phone out of his pocket and that he gave the phone to the accused as he “could not touch the numbers”.

Hulur said he could not remember overtaking another car.

Police sergeant Roxanne Caruana, from the St. Julian’s police station, had arrived at the scene after being dispatched by the control room. “When I arrived, I found two nurses from the St. John Ambulance Corps assisting a boy who was on the ground, who was bleeding from the head.”

She said that she had noted the car had stopped on the wrong side of the road, in the lane meant for oncoming traffic, adding that the boy was approximately one metre away from the vehicle, which the court was told sustained damage to the bonnet and windscreen.

Inspector Carol Fabri, leading the prosecution together with Inspector Trevor Micallef, testified how police had to break the news to the boy’s uncle and sister who came to report Aghil as missing later that day. They identified the body at the mortuary, she said.

The case will continue in early October, the court ordering a forensics expert to present measurements of the width of the road up to the dividing line as well as the width of the cars involved in the accident.

Lawyer Kris Busietta also appeared for Pancar.