Tourist accused of running over child

A Spanish tourist was yesterday charged with running over a five-year-old boy and seriously injuring him as he crossed the road in Qajjenza, Birżebbuġa on Monday.

Former teacher Ana Maria Garcia, 62, was at first charged with slightly injuring the boy but the lawyer appearing for the victim's family objected, pointing out the child was still in hospital and had a crushed leg which, by law, amounted to a serious injury.

Magistrate Anthony Vella postponed the sitting for five minutes until Police Inspector Priscilla Caruana went to the Attorney General's Office to change the charge sheet.

A friend of the accused, Begonia Gonzales, who was in the car at the time, said they had just come round a sharp bend when they came across the boy. She said she had not seen the child but was alerted to him by Ms Garcia who started shouting: "Niño, niño, niño," (child, child, child).

She still did spot the boy but then she saw him run in the direction of the car and at that point Ms Garcia slammed the brakes and stopped after two or three meters.

This conflicted with a report drawn up by a police sergeant and which was read out in part by the magistrate. The report, in fact, said there were 12-metre brake marks on the road.

Ms Gonzales said they panicked and got out to see how the boy was and a man accompanying the boy and who she thought was his father, started to get violent.

Under cross examination, she said the same man approached the accused while she was waiting in the corridor at the law court and asked her for money.

A short time later, the boy's mother and the man approached both of them and a third passenger and asked whether they were covered by insurance.

Immediately after the accident, the boy seemed fine, was up on his feet and was being "made a fuss of" while they made sure he had no cuts or any serious injury.

The third passenger in the car, Mario Aquia, the accused's brother, said he saw the boy run away from his mother to the middle of the road and then stop, look at his mother, and then continue to run right into the car.

He said all three of them in the car were shaken by the accident and rushed to check on the boy and called an ambulance.

The two witnesses are due to leave today. Ms Garcia will be leaving on Thursday after the other witnesses are heard and the case is decided.

Lawyers Emanuel Mallia and Arthur Azzopardi appeared parte civile. Lawyer Anthony Cutajar appeared for the accused.