Victim's daughter calls for better building regulations

The daughter of a woman who was crushed to death in her St Paul's Bay apartment five years ago is hoping the authorities learn from the tragedy by tightening construction regulations.

"My mother spent her life teaching, she died teaching and today she is still teaching... I hope her final lesson will be learnt and there will be no similar accidents in future," Marie Diane Mulè Stagno said.

Her mother, 60-year-old Maria Dolores Zarb, was giving a Maltese lesson to Russian girl Nadya Vavilova, 24, in her apartment in Ramon Perellos Street when the building collapsed on June 3, 2004.

Their bodies were found buried under rubble about 10 hours later. The block, adjacent to a construction plot, collapsed when a worker cut through the bearing concrete surface of the building.

Last Wednesday, the owner of the plot was jailed for three years and a construction worker will serve 18-months for the involuntary homicide of the two women.

The court also made a series of recommendations to prevent the repetition of such cases.

Ms Mulè Stagno and her husband, Gino, believe justice has been done, not so much because of the punishment but through these recommendations.

A spokesman for the Resources' Ministry said the recommendations were already catered for in the Building Regulations Act to be debated in Parliament shortly.

"The criminal proceedings were a legal matter. We are at peace. We are not seeking revenge. There will be justice if the recommendations for the construction industry will be implemented and enforced," the couple said as they recalled their ordeal.

On that day, Ms Mulè Stagno and her husband dropped off their two-and-a-half year old daughter, Miriana, at her mother's home before work.

At the time they both worked in the education sector and, two days earlier, they had started half days. After work, at about 12.45 p.m., they went to pick up their daughter and left at 1.30 p.m.

While there, Ms Zarb complained about a headache brought about by the construction noise but never suspected her home was unsafe.

"At about 3.45 p.m. I heard an intense and persistent knock. Gino opened the door... As soon as he mentioned there was a policeman I immediately thought my mother was dead...

"I think it's the bond between mother and daughter. My father, Frans, died 14 years earlier so we were everything to one another," Ms Mulè Stagno said.

When the police officer informed them the building collapsed, her worst fears were confirmed. It was a Thursday and, at that time, her mother gave private lessons in her kitchen.

The couple headed to the site, after a friend offered to look after Miriana.

"It was apocalyptic," Mr Mulè Stagno said as his wife continued: "As soon as I arrived I knew she was dead... All I wanted was a corpse for the funeral."

Neighbours took them into their home from where they oversaw the rescuers' search.

"It was very difficult being there but I felt I owed it to my mother," Ms Mulè Stagno said.

Coping with the emotional loss of her mother was made harder by other factors. There was the material loss of the apartment where her father had carried out works before he died. All her parents' belongings and childhood memories were wiped out.

The court case started a year later and each sitting reawakened the pain. Apart from the criminal case they also initiated civil proceedings for damages which are still pending.

As time passed the couple faced the added problem of not having someone to leave their daughter with while at work.

"But the support we received from friends and colleagues is priceless. Then there was the element of faith that helped us find peace," they said.

Ms Mulè Stagno, an only child, added that neighbours and people from St Paul's Bay loved her mother since she was a confidant to many and loved her village. In fact, she was a member of the first St Paul's Bay council between 1993 and 1996 and had other roles in the locality, including teaching doctrine and serving as a librarian at the local state school.

Then there were the questions asked by Miriana about what had happened to her grandmother. She questioned why her nanna and the place she went to every morning were no longer there. Besides, three weeks earlier, she had lost her other grandmother, Candida, to cancer.

"Answering her questions was not easy as we did not want her to feel unsafe at home... When we pass in front of the site she still points it out and says: 'I wish my nanna was alive'," Ms Mulè Stagno said adding: "And I really miss not being able to share my daughter's upbringing with my mother."