A man who accidentally killed a friend and work colleague in a traffic accident  just over two years ago has been ordered by a court to do 450-hours of community service after a magistrate heard how the family of the deceased were not seeking a custodial sentence, and the victim had been crossing the road in a poorly-lit section when a zebra crossing was close by.

Vladimirs Puzanovs, a 27-year old Latvian national, had been behind the wheel of a Hyundai i10, on the night of December 16,2016 after a staff party at Bahar iċ-Cagħaq when he hit Dutch national Luc Clous, 20, who was crossing St Andrew’s Road, St Julian’s.

Mr Clous, had been returning from the same party but with a different group of friends, inside another car when he was asked to get out after an argument that was about to boil over.

The young man, with a blood alcohol concentration that was “twice that of the drink/drive limit and consistent with it producing a state of drunkenness in a normal social drinker”, was hit by the accused’s car which drove on and was found later parked at Birzebbuga.

The victim was pronounced dead on site by paramedics who rushed to the scene shortly after 4am.

Mr Puzanovs, who was accused over the hit and run incident, pleaded guilty and explained to the court how he had not realised he hit anyone, and he had been bearing the burden of guilt while facing proceedings over the involuntary homicide.

When delivering judgment, Magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech took into account a number of factors surrounding the dynamics of the incident, termed as “tragic and unfortunate.”

A number of eyewitnesses testified that they never saw the victim crossing the road at the time of the accident, nor had they even realized that a pedestrian had been run over.

Significant weight was given to the findings of a court-appointed expert who reported that the street had been poorly lit and that visibility had been made worse by the position of trees as well as adverse weather conditions at the time.

All this was compounded further by the fact that the victim had been wearing black whilst crossing the road at a point, some 9.2 metres away from a pedestrian crossing.

Moreover, toxicological tests had shown that the victim had been under the influence of alcohol and was probably labouring under the effect of cannabis consumed shortly before he met his fate.

When meting out punishment the court also took into consideration the accused’s admission of guilt, his clean criminal record, the nature of the offences as well as the circumstances of the case, lending particular attention to recommendations made by the Officer for Probation and Parole who deemed that “the interests of society are better served through the imposition of a community service order instead of a custodial sentence.”

Even the victim’s family had not insisted upon a custodial sentence upon the accused who, reportedly had been traumatized by the unfortunate episode, the court observed.

“Sight cannot be lost of the fact that a human life was lost; a loss which could have been averted had the accused exercised due prudence and caution,” the court said, declaring the accused guilty and placing him under a community service order of 450 hours as well as a treatment order for two years “so that he may be afforded the necessary psychological help needed.”

The court also banned him from driving for 2 years and to fork out court expert expenses.

Senior Inspector Trevor Micallef prosecuted.

Lawyer Joseph Giglio was defence counsel.