[attach id=417994 size="medium"]How Times of Malta reported the 2003 incident.[/attach]

A coach company director and a driver have been spared jail over a 2003 incident in which a Yugoslav schoolgirl fell off a minibus on the way back home from school.

Their six-month effective prison terms were overturned on appeal after a judge cleared the director of responsibility and said the driver’s punishment from the first court was too harsh.

The Appeals Court, presided over by Mr Justice Michael Mallia, found that Emanuel Zarb, the director of Zarb Coaches Limited, was not to blame for the incident.

In separate proceedings, he found that an effective jail term imposed on Cedric Sciberras, from Birkirkara, was too harsh a punishment for someone with a clean criminal record.

The court was ruling on appeals both had filed from a 2010 judgment in which they were jailed for six months each for their responsibility, through negligence, for the traffic accident that almost claimed the life of a 13-year-old schoolgirl.

Daliborka Vrhovac suffered grievous injuries when the rear door of a tail-van opened suddenly and she fell out the vehicle on the Regional Road on October 9, 2003, at about 3pm. As a result of the incident she spent a month in hospital. She suffered fractures in several parts of her body, disfigurement, loss of all her teeth, spinal injuries and a partial loss of hearing.

The court heard how Mr Zarb had dispatched two minibuses to pick up a group of 26 students after school when the coach which was meant to transport them home developed mechanical problems.

However, not to leave any children behind, even though he knew that a second van was on the way, Mr Sciberras loaded them all into his minibus. This was a special purpose vehicle with a tail lift, meant to carry wheelchairs.

The court found that the girl had to stand because the van was overloaded – it was registered to carry no more than 10 passengers.

The schoolchildren also said that the driver had been using a mobile phone, although he was not speeding. At one point the children were thrown back and the rear door opened.

Mr Justice Mallia said that Mr Sciberras’s decision to load all the students onto his minibus was “deplorable and censorable” as he had allowed more than twice the number of passengers which the van was licensed for.

But given that the injured girl had received compensation from the insurance firm and he had a clean criminal record, the punishment was too harsh.

The magistrate therefore suspended the six-month jail term for two years.

With regard to Mr Zarb, Mr Justice Mallia ruled that he had dispatched two minivans because he knew they would not fit into one and was not to blame for the unilateral decision taken by Mr Sciberras to load all students on a van that was not meant to carry so many students.

He therefore cleared Mr Zarb of the charges brought against him.

Lawyer Joe Giglio appeared for Mr Zarb while lawyer Edward Gatt appeared for Mr Sciberras.