The police commissioner has been ordered to pay €7,700 in compensation to a traffic section sergeant who lost his allowances when he was out of work for seven months due to a motorcycle crash.
The officer, Malcolm Mifsud, had crashed on a slippery Great Siege Road in Floriana on January 22, 2009 during heavy rain, hitting an electricity pole and suffering serious injuries.
He sued Transport Malta, Floriana Council, Enemalta and the police, blaming them for the state of the road, the poor protection afforded by his uniform and helmet and the state of his motorcycle.
The court, presided by Mr Justice Grazio Mercieca, established that diesel or some other substances, mixed with the rainwater, had made the road slippery, but Transport Malta, Floriana Council and Enemalta bore no blame.
The commissioner of police argued that the police too, bore no blame. The helmet met standard European requirements and the motorcycle was regularly serviced and had relatively new tyres.
Furthermore, had the motorcycle and the helmet been in the poor state which the officer was making them out to be, he would surely have, on returning to duty, sought a transfer, rather than returning to his previous role and even working overtime.
The court heard testimony by an expert who testified that the helmet was not an exact fit and came off when the officer fell off the motorcycle and was dragged, but not before the chin strap injured him.
The court also found that at the time of the accident the uniform did not include protective foaming for the police motorcyclists. That was only introduced in 2014, five years after. The police had been trying to get the new uniforms since a year before the crash, but the number, at 50, was too small for the supplier.
The court attributed 20% of the blame for the accident to the police, saying it agreed with the findings of the magisterial inquiry that the officer was not to blame for the skid, which was caused by the road conditions, but that a better uniform and equipment would have avoided many of his injuries.