A 27-year-old man was given a one-year jail term suspended for three years for involuntarily causing the death of 10-year-old Nicole Zahra, during a traffic accident in Hal Far Road in 2010.

Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera ruled that, while Mariano D'Amato was driving at an unacceptable speed when the accident happened, the accident was not entirely his fault.

The girl's father had failed to keep a proper lookout when he drove out from a side road and into the main road where the collision took place on July 4, 2010 at about 9.45pm.

The magistrate heard how the accident happened when Mr D'Amato, 27 of Zurrieq, was driving his Hyundai Accent along Hal Far Road, in the direction of Gudja. There were two friends in his car - a man who was sitting in the front passenger seat and his girlfriend who was sitting at the back. The friends had been out all afternoon and has been to a couple of bars.

Meanwhile, Peter Zahra was driving his Maruti Jeep out of a side road. His wife, Pauline, was in the front passenger seat, while their daughter Nicole was at the back where there were no seat belts. The back seats faced each other.

As he drove out of the side road he looked left, since he wanted to cross the carriageway to drive in the direction of Gudja. He noticed that there was a car but thought it was very far. Soon after he drove into the road and crossed the carriageway the Hyundai crashed into the back of his car that rammed into crash barriers.

Mr Zahra got out the car and immediately went to check on his daughter who was unconscious. He lifted her out of the car. She did not have visible injuries. A woman, who was a first aider, was driving by and stopped to help. The ambulance arrived and the girl was taken to hospital where she died on July 16 after suffering a fractured skull and intracranial haemorrhage.

After hearing all the people involved give evidence Magistrate Scerri Herrera noted that one could not deny that Mr D'Amato was driving at an unacceptable speed and this amounted to reckless driving. In fact a court expert calculated that it must have been 147.67 km per hour, she said.

However, she could not ignore the fact that that Mr Zahra also had a role in the incident, even though to a lesser degree, as he had failed to keep a proper lookout. In light of this she handed down a suspended jail term and fined Mr D'Amato €2,000.