The minimum of a five-year prison sentence in accidental traffic fatalities with more than one victim involved has been removed.

The House Committee for the Reconsideration of Bills approved of an amendment to the Traffic Regulation Ordinance (Amendment) Bill following public uproar sparked with the imprisonment of 34-year-old teacher Dorianne Camilleri.

Ms Camilleri was sentenced to five years in jail for killing an elderly man and seriously injuring his sister in a traffic accident on the Rabat Road in May 2011.

A petition signed by over 27,000 persons calling for the amendment was presented to Speaker Anġlu Farrugia by Labour MP Luciano Busuttil and Opposition MP Antoine Borg.

Presenting the amendment, Justice Minister Owen Bonnici said magistrates deciding such cases would be given elbow room to impose lower sentences and not a mandatory five-year term.

The maximum 10-year jail term remains the same.

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