A woman has been acquitted of having caused the death of a motorcyclist after a magistrate established that the victim was driving at 195km/h and had just recklessly overtaken a bus. He was standing up whilst driving with his right hand up and could not use both brakes on his motorcycle.

The fatal traffic accident happened on February 1, 2020 on Mistra bridge when the motorcycle crashed into a car driven by Lithuanian woman Ligita Imbrasiene, 49. The car had just emerged from the Mistra sideroad and was crossing to the other side of the road. The victim was Mark Camilleri, 46, from Mellieħa.

Magistrate Nadine Lia observed that in criminal proceedings every driver was responsible for his actions independently of what others did, provided that what happened was not solely and exclusively due to the sole fault of a third party.

However she noted that the prosecution had failed to present various witnesses including an architect who had prepared a site plan.

"Consequently the Court has no formal indication of how the road layout was, most notably when it comes to the continuous white lines which were raised by both parties owing to the fact that one of the charges focuses on the defendant allegedly violating these rules."

A passenger who was with the accused had testified to a court technical respect that the driver stopped on a Stop sign to turn to the right side towards Xemxija. They checked both sides for any oncoming vehicles and when they pulled out of the Stop sign, they saw the motorcycle coming at excessive speed whilst he was trying to brake. The victim was standing up and he couldn’t control the bike and crashed into the right side of their car. From his position, the witness said he could not see any white lines.

Another witness confirmed that the motorcyclist had overtaken him at excessive speed. 

The court said that from the evidence, including the testimony of a court technical expert, it transpired that the victim was driving at an excessive speed and moments before the accident had overtaken a bus recklessly. In addition to this the driver of the motorcycle was standing up whilst driving, a practice which the technical expert explained was not conducive to careful driving.  

"These factors were all bad practice and exposed his life to unnecessary risk and danger. As a result after overtaking the bus, the driver of the motorcycle did not brake as he should have were he sitting down with both hands on the handle bar and he only braked with this rear brake. The fatal and catastrophic result was that he lost control and collided with the car of the defendant," the court said. 

The defendant had no way of knowing that the motorcyclist would overtake the bus at such a high speed or that he would not have full control of the motorcycle.

The court added that there was no particular reason to believe that the defendant did not keep a proper lookout or did not check out the area and look at both sides before exiting from the Stop sign. It was reasonable to understand that the defendant would not have had the time or reflexes to change her direction given that the motorcycle was being driven at excessive speed after overtaking a slow-moving bus.

The defendant was therefore found not guilty of having caused the death of the motorcyclist through imprudence and carelessness or having driven a car recklessly. She was also found not guilty of having crossed a continuous white (centre) line.

Lawyers Jason Azzopardi and Kris Busietta represented the driver.

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly named the defendant as Maleskiene Viciene.