A man was cleared of reckless driving and running over a man in Cospicua after a court heard how the pedestrian had caused the emergency.

Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera ruled that Charlton Diacono could not have predicted that the pedestrian would cross the road and, therefore, his actions did not amount to recklessness. Furthermore, there were two zebra crossings a few meters away from where the accident happened.

The case centred around an accident that happened on July 16, 2009, at 6am in Cospicua. Mr Diacono was driving along Coronation Street, close to the police station. He told the court how he noticed a man running along the pavement and, suddenly, the man walked into the road about four meters away from him. He slammed on the brakes.

The pedestrian suffered serious head injuries and spent some three months in hospital.

The pedestrian told the court he did not remember what happened that day. All he remember was that it was early in the morning, he had just parked his van near the police station and locked it. Next he knew, he was in hospital. 

The court said it was clear that the accident was not caused by lack of observance of the law by the driver but the carelessness of the pedestrian when he crossed the road.

The driver was not negligent and it was the victim who caused the accident when he created the emergency for the driver.

The driver had described how he saw the victim four metres away on the pavement. The victim too could have seen the car. The driver had had no reason to slow down because he had no way of knowing that the pedestrian would suddenly cross the road, the court said.