October’s charity event Paqpaqli Għall-Istrina spiralled into one of the island’s worst motoring incidents after a supercar spiraled out of control injuring 23 people, three critically. Kim Dalli reports on the main findings of the inquiry released by Justice Minister Owen Bonnici.

Paul Bailey

The inquiry states that 55-year-old British millionaire Paul Bailey, who was driving the Porsche 918 Spyder when it ploughed into a crowd of spectators, is the person “responsible for the incident and its consequences”.

The circuit track on Taxiway Lima was designed by two foreigners for the sole use of Porsche 911 and a BMW M4, which belonged to another company. Such vehicles are much less powerful than the Porsche 918 Spyder driven by Mr Bailey. Unlike the other company, Mr Bailey did not carry out a trial run the day before.

The maximum velocity should be that of 200km/hr in a straight line motion and of 10km/hr when passing through the chicanes (water barriers forming two consecutive sharp bends in opposite directions to slow cars down when approaching a section of the track).

The inquiry stated that the incident was a direct result of excessive velocity upon entering as the chicane, excessive velocity upon exiting it due to aggressive acceleration and a lack of handling techniques and corrective measures to regain control over the vehicle.

Just because Mr Bailey was an avid collector of a number of hybrid cars did not mean he had mastered the particular skills needed to drive such high velocity supercars, the inquiry pointed out.

Mr Bailey lost control over the vehicle upon exiting the second chicane. As soon as he felt the rear part of the vehicle losing traction as he was accelerating (known as power oversteer), Mr Bailey committed two mistakes no professional racing driver would make: he released the gas pedal and held down the brakes.

This led to a total loss of control because, with locked wheels, any attempts at steering were useless. The vehicle continued following the trajectory it was in before the brakes were held down: that is, the diagonal trajectory straight into the spectators.

The inquiry disproved Mr Bailey’s claims that the rear right tyre was going flat before the incident and that the wheels had clipped the grass. Mr Bailey had also pointed out that the second chicane was located very close to the spectators. Despite noticing this, the inquiry continued, Mr Bailey still chose to drive his supercar.

Core committee team

The inquiry has deemed that the organising team is responsible for the secondary causes of the incident. The core committee team is made up of 11 volunteers, under the auspices of the President, who all carried out different tasks. The man most identified with the organisation of Paqpaqli għall-Istrina is Tonio Darmanin.

Justice Minister Owen Bonnici has asked the media not to reveal any names due to the fact that each person had varying degrees of responsibility and it was “unfair to put everyone in the same basket”. All 11 are expected to be arraigned in court.

The inquiry found the team to be “massively incompetent” because none of the members saw the importance of electing a person in the role of safety officer.

The team failed to implement a number of health and safety measures, such as placing concrete barriers along the track. The barriers were crowd control barriers and did not serve to protect the spectators.

No safety plan and risk assessment was prepared for taxiway activities. The only safety plans discussed by the team were for the Island Car Club show and drifting demonstrations.

The Civil Protection Department and Mater Dei Hospital were not consulted about measures which should be taken to adequately protect the public. The inquiry noted that the team’s meeting with the CPD centred on the department’s own presentation and its presence at the event.

“But the core committee never realised they had to ask the help of the CPD to see what measures they should take to protect the public from such a dangerous sport,” the inquiry said.

President reacts

President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca said it was a pity that an activity which had been organised for 10 years, and which was packed with good intentions to show solidarity, had ended in tragedy.

“This incident will remain a terrible memory, it was an activity which was meant to do good andbring about happiness, but instead it yielded pain.”

Recommendations

▪ Each mass event should require a police permit. Although the event was a public one, it was held on private grounds and therefore did not require a police permit.

▪ The CPD should be presented with a risk assessment by the organisers. It should be satisfied by all safety measures taken. This should be an integral part of the police’s decision to award permits.

▪ The CPD should conduct a site inspection. It should also be invested with the power to halt activities if the safety measures are not adhered to.

▪ The authorities should ensure that where people’s health and safety are involved, there should be no compromises.

▪ The Office of the President should never involve itself in the planning of such events. It should only be the benefactor of donations.

▪ Every activity should be led by professional entities in the field.

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