More than 27,000 people have signed an official petition calling for a change in law after a woman was sentenced to five years in prison for having involuntarily killed a man and injured his sister in a traffic accident.

The government and Opposition this morning presented the joint petition to Speaker Anġlu Farrugia, who said it will be tabled on Monday and referred to the Petitions Committee.

PN MP Antoine Borg and PL MP Luciano Busuttil said the strong response to the petition, launched three weeks ago, reflected public sentiment and the strong will to address a “legal anomaly” which imposes a minimum sentence of five years in prison for anyone for involuntary traffic deaths if a second person is also injured.

Dorianne Camilleri, a 34-year-old teacher, was convicted of the involuntary homicide of Alfred Zahra, 64 of Msida, and of critically injuring his sister Carmela Zahra, 75, in an accident on the Rabat road in May 2011.

The court said it did not believe Ms Camilleri’s claim that she had been driving at 50km per hour and that the elderly people stepped onto the road from a centre strip, behind a van.

Dr Busuttil said today the issue was not the sentence given but the law underpinning it, arguing that the courts should be given wider discretion in such cases.

While acknowledging the concerns of victims’ relatives, he said the changes to the law would not encourage abuse, but allow magistrates to take into account all the circumstances surrounding an incident.

Speaker Anġlu Farrugia welcomed the cross-party cooperation leading to the petition, noting that this would be the first presented to the Petitions Committee since its introduction last year.

He stressed that the petition should not be seen as criticising a court judgement, but pushing for a change in law.