A woman will have to pay just over €2,000 for damages following an accident she thought she had been cleared of, after the appeals court found she actually bore most of the blame.

Mary Ann Cachia was navigating her car out of a winding drive onto Triq is-Sidra in Swieqi in May 2009, when she was hit by an oncoming car, whose driver filed proceedings for his damages.

The Arbitration Tribunal had heard Ms Cachia explain that the applicant came up the one-way street at very high speed, hitting her car on the rear left side. The driver of the other car, Clayton Calleja, on the other hand, testified that he had not seen the woman’s car emerging from the drive.

The Tribunal decided that Ms Cachia bore no responsibility for the accident, noting that Mr Calleja had in fact attempted to avoid the impact by swerving to the side, hitting the woman's car which was still at an angle after emerging onto the main road.

However, the court of appeal, presided over by Mr Justice Anthony Ellul, observed that Ms Cachia had driven out onto the main road and was at an angle when the collision occurred – from where she could not have seen Mr Calleja’s car in her rear-view mirror.

Taking note of the point of impact, the position of both vehicles as recorded in the warden’s onsite sketch, as well as the damage suffered by both cars, the court concluded that she had driven onto the main road without stopping.

However, the impact indicated that Mr Calleja was driving well over the village limit of 50km/hr.

For these reasons, the court declared that Ms Cachia bore 70% of the responsibility for the accident, and ordered her to pay €2,038.60 by way of damages. Mr Calleja, on the other hand, had to pay 30% to cover the cost of damage to her car.

Court expenses were to be shared 70/30 between Ms Cachia and Mr Calleja.