[attach id=327208 size="medium"]Justice Minister Owen Bonnici was involved in a car accident on April 3.[/attach]

The police have still not decided whether to issue charges against Justice Minister Owen Bonnici over a car accident in which a man was injured last week.

“I have reviewed the case file and we are still in the process of speaking to witnesses so there is no decision yet,” Police Commissioner Peter Paul Zammit told The Sunday Times of Malta.

Dr Bonnici was driving his private car at around 9pm on April 3 when he crashed into another vehicle that was stranded on a curve road leading to Marsa from the Santa Venera tunnels.

The crash pushed the vehicle on to another car in front, which ended up injuring two men that were at the end of the pile-up. One of the men suffered a broken knee but was released from hospital while his brother was slightly injured.

The man was there to help his brother, whose car had broken down, and he had parked his own vehicle in front of it.

When contacted yesterday, the man, who asked for his family’s privacy to be respected, said his brother was recovering but would not comment further.

Dr Bonnici could potentially face charges over the incident because the fractures reported by one of the men amount to “grievous injuries”. In such cases the police generally issue charges and let the courts decide.

The minister himself pre-empted the possibility in a statement issued on Tuesday in which he said that “there is a process that is followed by the police in similar cases through traffic sittings and as with any other citizen, they will follow the normal course”.

Speaking to The Sunday Times of Malta, Dr Bonnici said he had not received a summons from the police but pointed out that he had engaged a lawyer, Joe Buttigieg, to handle the case.

Asked if he would tender his resignation should charges be issued, Dr Bonnici said he felt the case was an involuntary accident which he did nothing to aggravate but added that he would decide on this matter when the nature of the charges were known.

“My car was in good working order, I was wearing my seatbelt and I was driving normally. And I wasn’t drunk or inebriated as suggested by In-Nazzjon (he instituted libel proceedings against the newspaper). All I drank all day was tea with honey. Still, I think I will reserve judgement on this question till after the charges are issued. I feel I should just let the police do their job at this point.”

Traffic experts who spoke to this newspaper said the police have a practice of issuing charges in this sort of case and then let the courts decide.

The courts would normally consider factors like the amount of light available on the street, whether there were any signs of speeding, and whether the stationary car had hazard lights on or cones marking the attention of oncoming traffic, the experts said.

The brother of the victim said the hazard lights were on. However, Dr Bonnici complained that it was very dark and the car was on a bend. “It was pitch dark and I had seconds to react. I did not have the option to veer to the right as there was a car,” he said in his first comments on the accident.