Driver ordered to pay €19,600 to victim of illegal U-turn

A motorist has been ordered to pay €19,585.71 in compensation to a motorcyclist for injuries he suffered as a result of an accident the motorist had caused ten years ago.

Marco Desira was found responsible for the collision, the court hearing how Desira had performed a U-turn in Hompesch road, Zabbar, in the process colliding with a passing motorcyclist, Joseph Demicoli. Demicoli had been thrown off his bike by the collision, coming to rest several metres away.

Deciding the case, Madame Justice Anna Felice pointed out that as both drivers had given contradictory versions of events, the court had arrived at its conclusions by comparing the evidence to the traffic regulations and the witness evidence.

The Court said Desira should have ensured the coast was clear before making the manoeuvre, which in any case, was illegal as the carriageways were divided by a continuous white line.

Madame Justice Felice noted that evidence showed the motorcyclist to have been driving at the edge of the carriageway as opposed to the middle, and that the incident had occurred close to the line dividing the carriageways and not in the centre, as he had claimed.

In spite of this, however, the Court said it did not feel the motorcyclist was even partially to blame, as the accident was a result of an illegal and dangerous U-turn.

Concluding that the car driver was solely responsible for the incident, the Court ordered Desira to pay the sum of €19,585.71 in reparation for damages which the victim had suffered.