Accused 'was over the alcohol limit'

A court expert yesterday testified that a 21-year-old driver who allegedly killed a cyclist in a hit-and-run accident was over the legal limit for alcohol at the time.

He said he did not have much information to go by but used the accused youth's own admission that he had consumed 12 to 13 vodka cokes between midnight and 4.30 a.m. on July 30.

Anthony Taliana, 21, of Ħamrun, is charged with the involuntary homicide of cyclist Clifford Micallef, drink driving, driving a car without insurance cover and relapsing, after having already been convicted of dangerous driving.

Mr Micallef died on impact at about 5 a.m. on July 30 some 20 metres away from the entrance to the White Rocks Complex on the Coast Road.

Using the admission of Mr Taliana and an international standard to calculate the amount of alcohol in his blood stream, forensic scientist Godwin Sammut from the Malta National Laboratory testified that the accused was over the limit although he did not specify by how much.

The legal limit is 80mg per 100 ml of blood and 107mg per 100 decilitre for urine.

When he tested Mr Taliana, six hours after the accident, the urine sample reading was 98mg per decilitre of urine which is nine units below the legal limit.

Using this reading and the amount of alcohol which the accused admitted he had consumed on the night, Mr Sammut said he could establish that Mr Taljana was over the limit at the time of the accident.

When the defence lawyer, Michael Schiriha, grilled the expert nobody seemed to understand the technical explanation he was given, at which point the lawyer asked to cross-examine the expert at another sitting after carefully reviewing the evidence.

Mario Buttigieg, a court-ap-pointed expert, had previously testified that the accused was driving at 114kph when he allegedly mowed down Mr Micallef.

He had said the front bumper of Mr Taliana's car "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 had calculated that Mr Taliana was driving at 113.8kph at the time of the incident. Police Inspector Kevin Farrugia prosecuted. Law-yers Michael Schiriha and Ian Farrugia appeared for the accused. Lawyers Joe Giglio and Giannella Caruana Curran appeared parte civile for the Micallef family.