The mother of a 21-year-old man who died in a car crash has called out prosecution mistakes that lead to criminal court cases being dropped. 

Fiona Laferla, whose son Ben died when the car his friend was driving crashed into a wall in Swieqi, said on Saturday that the indifference and callousness that family members of the deceased face in the justice system is another unnecessary wound in what is already a very difficult situation. 

Speaking during Andrew Azzopardi’s radio show on RTK 103, Laferala said she cannot understand how those who make mistakes - like writing the wrong date, address or detail down at the scenes of crimes or crashes - don’t face any consequences for their actions. 

“God forbid I made mistakes of this calibre while teaching, you would never hear the end of it,” she said.  “But isn’t it bad enough that you’ve lost a loved one, a husband or a child, and on a technicality you lose your chance to get closure as well?” 

Laferla also criticised policymakers for not acting on what are clear shortcomings in the system.

I worry that eventually, everyone becomes immune to these deaths until it impacts them,” she said. 

“The worst thing that can strike you is indifference, and that is why I don’t understand the policymakers.” 

She was also critical of the cold approach relatives are faced with when finding themselves in the court system. 

“I saw this indifference first-hand in court with the first lawyer that (the driver of the car) had,” she continued.  “I’m a generally calm person but there was one occasion where I wanted to throw something at him. He tried to ridicule me, tried to paint Ben and his girlfriend in the worst light possible and was bringing up things that had nothing to do with the case at all.”

Last year Maxime Asacha Muehlematter, the 22-year-old who was driving the car that Ben died in, admitted to causing his death and was handed a suspended sentence and a one-year driving ban.

Muehlematter was cleared of drink-driving charges as prosecutors had no evidence to prove that charge. Initially another passenger in the car, a girl who was 17 at the time, told police she was the one driving the car. 

The girl later admitted she had lied and that Muehlematter was the driver. She was given a conditional discharge.  

Laferla told Times of Malta last year that while she was not out for revenge and did not want to see the young man go to prison, she felt that he should have received a longer driving ban, if barring him from driving forever was not a possibility. 

Bringing this point up again on Saturday, she said that these are the issues policymakers should be addressing, particularly as road deaths are not isolated incidents and continue to claim people’s lives senselessly year after year. 

“I knew that it was going to be a slap on the wrist because I had seen what happened in other cases,” she said. 

“We were lucky that he admitted and the process was not long and drawn out. But when you’ve already lost your son that’s not saying much. Don’t the people on top see these things?” she questioned.