A 39-year-old Turkish national has been awarded over €74,000 in damages following an accident in Siġġiewi which left him suffering from a permanent disability.

The man was driving his Piaggio Vespa along Triq Għar Lapsi on May 2, 2020, when he stumbled into a pothole, lost his balance and fell off the motorcycle. He was taken to Mater Dei Hospital where he was certified with grievous injuries.

Following the incident, the man returned to Turkey since he needed treatment, and the coronavirus pandemic had hit. He also underwent several surgical interventions. As a result of the incident, he sustained permanent disability, which harmed his quality of life. The man eventually returned to Malta.

Through his lawyers, he filed an application before the First Hall of the Civil Court, suing the Siġġiewi Local Council and Infrastructure Malta. He requested the court to hold both responsible for the incident and order them to pay him damages.

Both Infrastructure Malta and the Siġġiewi local council argued that they were not suited, with the road agency arguing that the council was responsible for maintaining the road, while the local council argued that it was in the hands of the agency.

In court, the man testified that as he was driving along Triq Għar Lapsi, direction towards Dingli cliffs, a few meters after he turned the corner, the condition of the road changed dramatically.

Who is responsible for the road?

He described how the road level went down by a few metres before he drove into a pothole. Moreover, there were no signs that the road surface would deteriorate, and the man said he had no reason to believe that the road surface would change in such a manner.

John Fenech from Elles Urban Services Ltd – a company engaged by the council to maintain the roads – acknowledged that the road was in a state of disrepair and it had to be resurfaced. He also testified that the damage to the road was primarily attributable to the frequent passage of heavy vehicles in the service of nearby quarries. He added that the road was not built to take the weight of the vehicles.

A police constable similarly testified that the road was in a bad state, noting that there were several cracks in the asphalt and potholes.

In establishing who was responsible for the road, the court heard architect David Vassallo from Infrastructure Malta. The witness said the road fell under the responsibility of the local council, however, the road agency intervened and issued an emergency allocation to contractor Philip Agius and Sons for €1.5 million, excluding VAT, in December 2020.

The council’s executive secretary, Ritianne Giorgino, told the court that while it was within the council’s boundary, the local council is responsible for maintenance or patching works, while resurfacing falls under the responsibility of the local government.

Referring to the mayor’s affidavit, the court observed that while it was outlined that the council has several structures to monitor and ascertain that roads are kept in a good state of repair, this was not the case and notwithstanding the “layers of surveillance adopted by the Council, somewhere down the line, somebody is not doing his job properly or else the technical operandi is not functioning."

The court reminded how the road is used by heavy vehicles and therefore, the road should have been monitored more closely and frequently.

It also observed that it was only after the plaintiff was injured that the road was properly repaired.

The court concluded that the council was wholly to blame for the accident. 

When it came to calculating damages, it took into consideration that 21 months after the accident, the man’s radial nerve did not make a full recovery, and this was most likely improbable.

It also took into consideration the court-appointed expert’s observations on the fracture of the distal tibia, which involved an articular surface of the ankle joint and will inevitably lead to arthritic change. The motorcyclist also ended up with substantial amounts of metal implants attached to the humerus and tibia. These foreign bodies provide a slightly increased risk of bone infection during bacetermia, according to the expert.

After calculating the damages, the court declared the Siġġiewi local council responsible for the incident and ordered it to pay the man €74,873.

Mr Justice Toni Abela presided over the court.

Lawyers Kris Busietta and Alessandro Farrugia assisted the plaintiff.