Court awards compensation to driver maimed in horrific crash

A Gozitan man who suffered 14% disability when his arm was trapped between his pickup truck and the road in a horrific traffic accident has been awarded €7,300 in compensation.

John Debrincat had been driving to Nadur, in his Toyota Hilux with his daughter as a passenger on 20 October 2014, when a Peugeot driven by Alcksey Osupov ran a stop sign at the roundabout on Triq San Anard in Victoria, Gozo and barrelled into him, overturning the truck and pinning Debrincat’s arm on the road.

Debrincat had held on to the door as the vehicle overturned and his arm ended up caught between the door and the road surface. Inside the cabin, his daughter was suspended by her seatbelt which was over her neck. “I tried to unlatch her seatbelt with my left arm but I couldn’t and I could not use my right hand because it was too painful,” he had told the court.

Debrincat’s vehicle was extensively damaged, but he fared worse, suffering a persistent lack of grip in his right hand which the court adjudged to be 14%. 

The Gozo court of Magistrates in its superior jurisdiction, presided by Magistrate Joanne Vella Cuschieri held that it was clear that Osupov hadn’t maintained a proper look out before pulling out of the stop sign. The court said it was in no doubt that the defendant was solely responsible for the accident.

Osupov could not be traced, having left the island, and was represented by a court-appointed curator during the proceedings.

It calculated the damages for the injury suffered and Debrincat’s consequential loss of earnings to be €7,309 condemning Osupov to pay the amount.