A father and son who came across a fatal car crash in Madliena last September have recounted hearing the screams that led them to the tragedy.

The two were testifying in proceedings against 21-year-old Maxime Asacha Muehlematter, the driver of the rented electric Renault Zoe vehicle that crashed on September 24, killing Ben Laferla, 21, who was sitting at the back.

Muehlematter stands accused with the involuntary homicide of his friend and with having caused grievous injuries to Laferla’s 20-year-old Chilean girlfriend, who was sitting next to him at the back of the car.

Laferla was rushed to hospital in critical condition and was certified as brain dead a couple of days later.

Muehlematter and his girlfriend, who was 17 at the time, were slightly injured in the crash.

Testifying this week, a Madliena resident recounted how he was driving along a stretch of road on Triq il-Madliena, Swieqi at around 1:00am, together with his wife, son and two English guests, when he spotted part of a car bumper, just past a bend.

He immediately pulled over to check what happened.

“It was dark and there was screaming,” recalled the man, describing a vehicle crashed into the wall of a nearby building.

'She seemed hysterical'

He dialed for an ambulance and was told that emergency services had already been alerted.

“It seemed like an age,” said the man. Help arrived some “ten or fifteen minutes later” he said.

An emergency doctor arrived first, roughly at the same time as the police.

Four young victims, two males and two females, were involved in the crash, said the witness, identifying the accused as one of them.

“He was standing back a bit and seemed quiet and shocked. One girl was screaming, ‘don’t let him die… she seemed hysterical. The other two were shell-shocked,” he testified.

His family later provided an ice pack for one of the female victims, who had injured her shoulder.

His son, who testified next, recalled “someone” standing by the side of the road, holding a flashlight.

It was a neighbour who lived nearby. 

“Then I heard screams from the back of the crashed car,” he recalled, describing the scene that met his eye when he opened the driver’s door.

“Ben” was lying in the middle and was not breathing. The female passenger at the back was screaming.

The witness happened to know both the victim as well as the accused. The youths had sometimes crossed paths at a bar years ago and had occasionally chatted.

Once he got Ben out of the car, he “put him in recovery position” and put his hand inside the victim’s throat in an attempt to dislodge any blockage.

Suddenly, the victim began to breathe “softly.”  But the breathing soon stopped again and so he tried to administer CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation).

Asked by presiding Magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech about his knowledge in the field, the witness explained that he had completed a course in first aid.

Two bottles of alcohol in car

A female officer from the Forensic Science Laboratory also testified about two alcohol bottles she had retrieved from the crashed vehicle.

A bottle of Jäegermeister was lying on the front passenger seat, while a bottle of Captain Morgan was found at the back, both one-fourth full.

She had handed those items to a court scientist for further forensic tests.

Drinks, then a drive

The accused’s girlfriend, who initially told police that she was driving at the time of the crash, later confessed that she had “spontaneously” stepped in to take the blame because she thought that her age would spare her criminal charges.

When testifying during a previous hearing, the teenager recalled how she and the accused had been walking in the Sliema area that day when they received a call from Ben, “a very close friend” of her boyfriend’s.

She and “Max” had a bottle of Jäegermeister and bought some energy drinks from Greens Supermarket Swieqi where the four met before heading to St George’s Bay in a rented car.

They sat at the beach for some time and were talking about places to visit.

Some of those, like Top of the World at Gharghur, were not accessible by bus.

That was why they decided to rent a car using the GoTo app.

Under cross examination by the defence, she said that she and “Max” had shot down Ben’s suggestion of renting scooters because they felt that the other two “were not sober enough to be on a scooter.”

Since there was no GoTo designated parking spot near Top of the World, they decided to head back to Maxime’s house at Swieqi.

That was when the crash happened.

The witness could not remember much, except that suddenly she could not catch her breath and the smell of airbags. 

She and the accused went to check on their friends, finding them “on top of each other” both unconscious.

Ben’s girlfriend regained consciousness and was pulled out first but “Ben could not wake up,” said the witness, breaking down as she recalled how the two couples always used to hang out together and how “Ben was the life of the party.”

The case continues.

Inspector Jean Paul Attard is prosecuting. Lawyer Francois Dalli is defence counsel. Lawyers Maria Azzopardi and Mark Mifsud Cutajar are appearing parte civile.