A 27-year-old man was driving at over 147 kilometres per hour when he crashed into another car, gravely injuring Nicole Zahra, 10, who died two weeks later.

Mariano D’Amato was yesterday sentenced to a one-year jail term, suspended for three years, and fined €2,000 for involuntarily causing the girl’s death.

However, Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera ruled that the accident was not entirely his fault. The girl’s father, Peter, had failed to keep a proper lookout when he drove out of a side road into Ħal Far Road, limits of Luqa, on July 4, 2010, at about 9.45pm.

Mr D’Amato was driving at an unacceptable speed but Mr Zahra had failed to keep a proper lookout

Mr D’Amato, of Żurrieq, was driving his Hyundai Accent in the direction of Gudja. With him were two friends. The three had been out all afternoon and had also been to a couple of bars.

Mr Zahra was driving his Maruti Jeep, which had no seatbelts, to return home after a day out with his family. His wife, Pauline, was in the front and their daughter was in back. As he drove out of the side road, he looked left, to cross the carriageway to drive towards Gudja. He noticed a car approaching but it was far away. He then drove on to the road and crossed the carriageway, and it was at that point that the Hyundai crashed into the back of his car, which rammed the crash barriers there.

Mr Zahra got out of the car and checked on his daughter, who was unconscious. She did not have visible injuries. As he held his daughter in his arms, he told Mr D’Amato: “You killed my daughter.”

The girl was taken to hospital where she died on July 16 from a fractured skull and intracranial haemorrhage.

Magistrate Scerri Herrera noted that one could not deny that Mr D’Amato was driving at an unacceptable speed, which amounted to reckless driving. However, she could not ignore the fact that Mr Zahra also had a role in the incident, even though to a lesser degree, because he had failed to keep a proper lookout.