€500 fine for horse cab driver who injured tourist

Inspector Edel Mary Camilleri had previously charged 36 year-old Oliver Schembri from Qormi with inflicting grievous injuries on Jocelyne Louise Johnson during the afternoon of the 16th of August last year, at Mdina. Schembri had also been accused of driving the cab in a dangerous and negligent manner.

Ms. Johnson had testified before Magistrate Doreen Clarke, explaining how she had been visiting Mdina with a group of other tourists when the karozzin hove into view, travelling at speed up the narrow road with no pavement, where the group had been standing.
The unlucky tourist's hand was snagged by the karozzin as it barrelled past, forcing her to run alongside it until she managed to free her hand.

The driver had stopped the cab, hearing the woman's friends shouting, and had insisted on taking her to the Rabat polyclinic. The woman was eventually found to have suffered fractures to her arm.

Although the woman had filed a police report on the 18th August, she had insisted that she did not want the man to lose his job, rather to be made aware of the dangers of speeding in narrow roads.

Schembri had pleaded guilty to driving his karozzin at excessive speed, explaining that this was necessary because the surface was slippery and his horse would otherwise lose traction. The route was examined by the court and was found to have been approved by the Mdina local council and Transport Malta.

The court remarked that the road was so narrow that it lacked a pavement and the only option pedestrians had would be to climb on somebody's doorstep.

Noting that the cab driver had been travelling at speed and had not stopped or slowed down, the court held that this type of driving fell within the parameters of reckless driving.

In finding Schembri guilty of speeding, the court remarked that, as a person who was very familiar with Mdina's roads, the accused should have exercised more caution.