The father of one of five young people killed in Malta's worst traffic accident expressed disappointment yesterday that an appeal court had not increased the three-year jail term handed down to the driver of the car in which his son had died.
Anthony Vella said justice should have been better served, pointing also to the five-year driving ban faced by the driver in the 2005 Żebbuġ bypass accident.
"Since the driving ban begins at the handing down of the appeal judgment, when the driver is released from prison there will only be three years of his ban left," a hurt Mr Vella said. A year in prison is considered as being eight months, not 12.
He also wants the law to be changed so that in cases like this, where more than one person dies, the driver would face a jail term for every person killed.
Both magistrate's and appeal court considered the deaths as one crime - involuntary homicide - so the maximum jail term that could have been handed down was four years and three months.
The horrific accident took place on October 1, four years ago.
Antoine Cassar, 23 at the time, was driving a van and was giving a lift to David Sacco, 13, Fabio Magro, 16 and 17-year-olds Marco Abdilla, Oswaldo Emanuel Vella (Mr Vella's son) and Christian Camilleri.
Riding in the back of the van, the group of five friends were returning from a barbecue at Olive Gardens in Rabat.
As he sped along the new Żebbuġ bypass at around 12.45 a.m., Mr Cassar lost control of his van after overtaking a Subaru on the inside lane and smashed into a wall.
All five passengers in the back lost their lives in the crash. One of the youngsters flew out of Mr Cassar's panelled van, which was not meant to be carrying more than two people - the driver and one passenger - and landed some eight metres away.
The incident, by far the worst single traffic accident on Maltese roads, shocked Malta but particularly Qrendi, the five boys' home village.
Mr Cassar appealed the original three-year jail term and the five-year driving suspension, claiming it was excessive and that he should be treated as a first-time offender since he had a clean police record.
He also said he believed he was doing his friends a favour by taking them home after the barbeque.
The Attorney General fought back, asking the court to consider a jail term for each fatality. He argued that it did not make sense to act as though there was only one victim, and asked for a prison term of 12 years.
Mr Justice David Scicluna threw out both appeals and confirmed the original judgment. He said the law is what it is and the previous court had ably tackled the case.
He noted that the accused wanted the court to take into consideration that there was a contributory element on the part of the victims, who chose to get into the car knowing it could not take more than two people.
"This court sees no contributory element on their part," Mr Justice Scicluna said.
He took into consideration that the accused does not need any type of reformation but said the sentence needed to send a message to society that life was not cheap and that even involuntary homicide was very serious.
Lawyer Nadine Sant appeared for the Attorney General.
Lawyers Simon Micallef Stafrace, Joseph Zammit Mckeon and Pierre Lofaro appeared for Mr Cassar while lawyers Michael Tanti-Dougall, Jacqueline Tanti-Dougall and Kriss Busietta appeared parte civile.