Unlicensed driver convicted of grievously injuring elderly woman in Balzan

An unlicensed driver who injured an elderly woman in a narrow Balzan street before driving away, has been banned from driving for 18 months, together with a suspended sentence and a fine for his reckless and dangerous driving.

Roger Mahlangu 34, of Balzan, had been charged with negligently causing grievous bodily harm to the victim, driving recklessly, without a licence and without a valid insurance cover.

The incident had occurred in March 2014, as Mahlangu had been hurrying back to his place of work as he had left it till too late.

The accused had told the police that as he had been driving the borrowed car on Balzan’s Main Street, he had been forced to swerve to avoid hitting an elderly woman who, he said, had stepped on to the road from behind a parked vehicle.

Mahlangu had insisted that that he had clipped the pedestrian with his side mirror and had stopped to assist the woman, but had left upon seeing that a man was already helping the elderly woman get up.

But this account was contradicted by that given by two eyewitnesses to the accident.

One of the witnesses, a neighbour who lived across the road from the victim, had testified how she had been chatting with the woman moments before the accident. The witness had been walking to her car when she heard raised voices behind her. When she turned, she had seen the victim lying  in the middle of the road.

The driver had got out of his car, the neighbour said, rebuked the victim for being in the middle of the road, and then drove off.

A second witness had recalled hearing music playing at high volume from a car stereo, as he stood facing away from the road. He turned around upon hearing a bang, to see the elderly woman on the ground.

The court heard the witness explain how he and another passerby had helped the injured woman into her house. Every step made the victim scream in pain, but the driver pretended that nothing was wrong. “He got out of the car, I remember and went up to the lady...he didn’t help her up because it was myself and another person who did that. He started telling her that everything was all right and that there was nothing wrong with her, that nothing happened.” After helping the woman into her house and returning to the street, the witness said there was no sign of the driver.

The elderly victim, who died for reasons unrelated to the accident before the case was decided, had told the police that she had been waiting to cross the street to get back to her house when the car clipped her and knocked her over. The driver had emerged and asked her why she had stepped off the pavement, before getting back into the vehicle and driving off, she had said.

Court-appointed medical experts had established that the victim’s hip had been fractured by the impact.

The court, presided over by magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech, said that the accused had not wanted to be there when the police arrived, because he didn’t have a licence or insurance. The magistrate lambasted what she described as the man’s menefregista (“I don’t care”) attitude, remarking that “he did not demonstrate the slightest human decency by stopping to assist the elderly lady in time of need.”

Instead of driving cautiously through the village core’s narrow streets, the accused had played his car stereo full on and had not decreased his speed when he spotted the elderly pedestrian crossing the road to his left.

On the other hand, the court also observed that the victim’s negligence had contributed in “no small degree” to the accident. This did not excuse the offence and could only lead to a mitigation in punishment, observed the magistrate.

The magistrate was critical of the fact that no scene of crime officers were dispatched to photograph the scene, saying that it was only able to piece together the facts of the incident thanks to the detailed evidence tendered by the two eyewitnesses.

In its considerations on punishment, the court noted that the accused was a recidivist with several past convictions, mainly involving threats against public officers. The magistrate also observed that despite the accused clearly having a criminal record, no reference was made to this fact in the Attorney General’s note of renvoi, which binds the court with regards to what it can find guilt for.

Mahlangu was found guilty and handed a six month prison sentence, suspended for 30 months, together with a €5000 fine. Mahlangu was also disqualified from driving for 18 months from the date of judgment.