The wife of a man who was crushed to death by a truck while at work two years ago, received a call that day mistakenly informing her that her husband had injured someone and needed to be calmed down, a court heard.
Their son, Martin Micallef, testified how his mother then called him to let him know and he went on site – only to find that his father was dead.
Micallef was testifying before Magistrate Nadine Lia who is presiding over proceedings requesting that the employers are held legally responsible for the incident that led to his father’s death.
Karmnu Micallef, 71, was accompanying truck driver, Davide Manunta, on that February 3, 2022, when he stepped out of the large Leyland DAF vehicle to give the driver directions as he attempted to turn around the truck on a narrow road.
The two workers had been transporting rebar to a construction site in the area.
The incident took place on Triq Wied il-Qoton, Birżebbuġa, with experts later reporting to the inquiring magistrate that that stretch of road was too narrow for such a bulky truck to be manoeuvred around.
Micallef was hit, dragged and run over several times with the truck’s left wheel before the driver realised what had happened.
His son explained Micallef was working for the company GP Borg Limited when he died.
“That day someone from the company GP Borg called my mother by mistake and told her that my father had hurt someone and to go there and calm him down,” he recalled.
His mother called him and he went to the site with a colleague.
When they arrived, Micallef was informed that his father was dead and saw the truck on a narrow road.
“I did not go all the way there… the truck was too big to enter into that area. They could have used a smaller vehicle.”
On site he found Inspector Jonathan Cassar as well as a certain Kevin Borg, who said he was a health and safety officer of the company, even though he was a director.
“The police and the Occupational Health and Safety Authority did not take steps against the employer. My father was an employee of GP Borg, sent on a company truck during working hours, and the truck was driven by Davide Manunta who is a driver employed by the company. The material belonged to the company as was the client,” he said.
Lawyer Franco Galea told the court that the magisterial inquiry into the accident had classified the case as a traffic accident, but the Micallefs were claiming this was a workplace accident.
The inquiry concluded that Davide Manunta should be charged with involuntary homicide. The compilation of evidence is ongoing against him.
“The categorisation of the site where the accident happened was a workplace. It was clear that the tool that the employer gave them to work with – the truck – was a big contributor to the death. The company knew where the delivery was going to be carried out,” the lawyer said.