Car driver 'was doing 114kph'

A young driver accused of involuntarily killing a cyclist had been driving at 114kph when he allegedly ran him over on the Coast Road in a hit-and-run incident, a court heard yesterday.

The testimony was given by a traffic expert who also told the court that 21-year-old Anthony Taliana had been involved in another crash in December 2007 in which a girl was injured but which was not reported to the police.

Mr Taliana, of Hamrun, is pleading not guilty to involuntary homicide, drink driving, driving a car without insurance cover and relapsing, after having been convicted of dangerous driving a few years ago.

His alleged victim, Cliff Micallef, died on impact at about 5 a.m. on July 30 some 20 metres away from the entrance to the White Rocks Complex in Blata l-Bajda.

Mario Buttigieg, a court-appointed expert, said that when he went to the garage owned by Mr Taliana's father he found two cars - the Fiat Brava allegedly involved in the accident and another car, a Mazda MX5, which was also extensively damaged, including having a smashed windscreen.

He investigated what had happened to this second car and discovered that Mr Taliana had been involved in a traffic accident on December 1, 2007, which had not been reported to the authorities.

Mr Buttigieg said Mr Taliana's passenger, Rachel Dingli Attard, had been injured that day.

The court then appointed Mario Scerri to examine Ms Dingli Attard and to find out more about her injuries from the hospital files, despite the fact that nearly two years had gone by.

Mr Buttigieg said that the Fiat's front bumper "disintegrated" on impact, while the metal bumper reinforcement beneath it receded by nearly three centimetres. In view of such damage and according to an international formula, he calculated that Mr Taliana had been driving at 113.8kph at the time of the incident.

The front bumper of the car and its number plate were left at the scene - which is how the police traced Mr Taliana. He confirmed that Mr Taliana had not been covered by an insurance policy as the only people allowed to drive the car were his parents.

Earlier yesterday, Godwin Sammut, from the Malta National Laboratory, said he had examined a urine sample from Mr Taliana, taken six hours after the incident, and found 98 milligrams per decilitre of alcohol in the sample.

He said this was nine milligrams short of the legal limit but stressed that six hours had gone by. Under cross-examination, he explained that the alcohol content in an average person dropped by 15 milligrams per decilitre per hour, depending on his build and other variables.

Miriam Barbara from the Guard and Warden Service testified that the speed camera on the Coast Road had not been operative on the day of the incident and that the machine had been transferred to another locality. The outer casing had been left in place.

Defence lawyer Michael Schiriha insisted on a request for the victim's mobile phone to be examined by a court expert and the contents of SMSs made known to the court. Asked for the reasoning behind this request, which was strongly opposed by parte civile lawyers, Dr Schiriha explained that the defence team wanted to get a clear picture of Mr Micallef's state of mind in the days, hours and minutes prior to the incident.

The court, presided over by Magistrate Audrey Demicoli, upheld this request but limited the court expert to examine only those received up to 12 hours prior to the incident.

The case continues.