Former Cabinet minister Louis Galea walks away from his car after it was hit by a flying concrete brick yesterday as he passed a construction site near the university roundabout along Mikiel Anton Vassalli Street. The accident happened at about 12.15pm when a tower crane was being dismantled. Photo courtesy of tvm.com.mt

Louis Galea, European Court of Auditors dean, and his passenger narrowly escaped injury after a concrete brick went through his car’s back window as he drove past a construction site.

The accident happened yesterday near the University roundabout, along Mikiel Anton Vassalli Street, at about 12.15pm when a crane was dismantling a tower crane. At one point the crane hit the concrete boundary wall and it crashed down.

Shaken, yet calm, Dr Galea, who was driving a Volkswagen Passat, explained that a warden was directing traffic and had just waved him on when the incident happened.

“As I drove past I suddenly sensed something was about to happen and in that split second I pressed the accelerator,” he said, when contacted. His quick thinking spared his passenger from injury because if he had not accelerated the brick would have crashed through the front window. Luckily, the back left window was hit instead.

“The incident could have led to far worse consequences, but all’s well that ends well,” the former Nationalist minister and Speaker said.

When contacted, Anking Construction worker Raymond Cutajar said he was shocked by what had happened but relieved nobody was injured, as “it could have been much worse”.

Mr Cutajar, who was operating the crane at the time of the incident, said he had been instructed to haul up a four-ton concrete slab when it knocked against the boundary wall.

The wall that came crashing down after a crane hit it.

European Court of Auditors dean Louis Galea.

“The wall was flimsy; even a strong gust of wind would have sent it toppling down,” he said.

Explaining that the company had all the permits in hand to carry out this work, Mr Cutajar said the warden should not have allowed vehicles to pass through while the construction material was being winched up.

“Traffic should have been stopped,” he claimed. Attempts to contact the warden company proved futile.

Dr Galea, who was in Malta for the Easter holidays and to vote in yesterday’s hunting referendum and local council election, returns to Luxembourg today.