An e-scooter rider who was left with skull fractures after a car ploughed into him in a hit-and-run in Birkirkara nine days ago has still not been interviewed by the police, while the driver who fled the scene remains at large. 

Toni, who asked for his surname to be withheld, suffered eight fractures to his skull, injuries to his liver and has been left unable to hear and see properly since the July 2 incident.

“I can’t sleep because of the nightmares and the pain,” the 31-year-old told Times of Malta. 

The Finnish presenter and ambassador at a gaming company was on his way to work when the incident happened on Mdina Road.

He said he was at a zebra crossing and remembers looking to his right and seeing a car at the roundabout.

“The next time I looked to my right, I saw the car almost next to me,” he said, indicating with his hands the proximity of the vehicle.

“I remember looking at the car thinking, ‘Well this is going to hurt’, and it did.”

The driver was at the wheel of a white Toyota, and left the scene after the 11.45am incident, according to a witness.

“Whether I was on an e-scooter or walking, I remember faintly the car changing lanes and heading in my direction,” he said.

The site of the incident in Birkirkara where Toni was hit by a driver who fled the scene. Photo: Chris Sant Fournier

He said he also believes the car which hit him is a white Toyota.

“I could be wrong, later on, I heard someone saying that the car was a Toyota, so this might be my head trying to piece the puzzle together to understand what happened.”

Toni next remembers his colleague speaking to him after she had left the company’s Mrieħel offices and heard the commotion.

“My colleague told me to lie down, but I was stubborn, not wanting to lie down on the ground and dirty my uniform, so I walked to the bus stop,” he said.

“I remember thinking about why I was there in the first place and trying to see where my shoes and the e-scooter ended up.”

The police and paramedics arrived shortly afterwards and he was placed in an ambulance and taken straight to the hospital, where he spent four days.

My daughter asked me, ‘Daddy, could you have gone to heaven?’

Toni recalled the moment he called his six-year-old daughter after the accident.

“She never saw me in such a state or with a black eye, it was truly a shock for her,” he said.

“All my family was shocked, but I remember my daughter asking me, ‘Daddy, could you have gone to heaven?’”

Toni’s injuries remain visible: a black eye and swollen and bruised legs. He also feels pain all over his body and says doctors are concerned that the loss of hearing in his right ear may be permanent, along with the loss of clear vision in his right eye.

Toni, who moved from Finland to Malta last year, said he was “frustrated and disappointed” that the driver did not stop.

“At the end of the day, what is more important than another person’s well-being?”

Waiting for a police call

He has also questioned why police have not interviewed him as part of their attempts to find the person behind the wheel.

“I have not been informed in any way about the case. They have not interviewed me. So, it is quite hard, I am not local, I don’t know what comes next and what I should do now.”

When contacted, a police spokesperson said investigations are ongoing.

Toni said he rarely uses e-scooters but had decided to rent one to save a “couple of minutes” of his usual trip.

He said his summer plans have been completely scrapped, as he has been advised to rest for the next six weeks. He also must follow a strict medication course, taking different medications four times a day.

“In August I had plans to start diving, but that has to be postponed for next year, if I am not hit by another car,” he said.

“We had plans to go to a water park, and many other fun plans, but now I am missing out on all of that.”

He thanked his colleagues and the support the company he works for has provided him during his time of recovery.

“I am super glad to have an employer and colleagues who are so supportive,” he said.

However, he said the incident has left him feeling frightened.

“The few times I do go out on the street, I am scared that people are going to kill me,” he said.

“It will go away, one day. I want to stay positive.”      

Hit-and-run incidents unusual

While traffic accidents have increased tenfold in recent years, hit-and-run incidents are unusual in Malta, but not unheard of.

Last year, Antoine Degabriele was found dead on the pavement on Triq President Anton Buttigieg in Żejtun, after he was run over in a hit-and-run incident in August.

Dean Donovan Frendo, the 23-year-old driver, is pleading not guilty to involuntary murder after allegedly running down Degabriele.

In 2015, a German man, Rainer Mader, died in a hit-and-run on Tower Road, Sliema, and in 2011, a 77-year-old British tourist was killed when she was hit by a speeding car in Qawra. The driver was later tracked down in Iklin.

Cyclist Clifford Micallef was killed when he was hit by a car in 2009, and the driver also fled the scene.

Twelve years later, in 2021, the court upheld a three-year jail term for Anthony Taliana, who was responsible for Micallef’s death.

E-kick scooter rules

E-kick scooters must be registered with Transport Malta and insured. Drivers must be over 18 and have an A, B or AM licence.

Scooters must not exceed 20km/h while on the road. Drivers caught using them on arterial or distributor roads can be fined €200, while driving them in tunnels or underpasses carries a €500 fine. 

Drivers must wear a high-visibility vest if driving an e-kick scooter from dusk till dawn, while helmets are recommended but not mandatory. 

Government sources have however said that they are thinking of making helmets mandatory, as part of a broader reform of scooter rules.