The negligence of a victim in a traffic accident led to the acquittal of the police officer charged with having knocked down the pedestrian on a busy thoroughfare in Naxxar.

Constable Matthew Azzopardi, 39, was accused of having involuntarily caused his victim grievous bodily harm, which offence he was duty bound to prevent.

The incident took place in September 2014, when the officer was riding his police bike through Parish Street. Switching on the blue beacon light, the officer approached the slow-moving vehicles, intending to ease the traffic flow.

Suddenly a man stepped from between two parked vehicles, straight onto the path of the oncoming motorcycle.

The pedestrian was knocked down upon impact and was later medically certified as having suffered grievous injuries.

All witnesses confirmed this version of events, except for the victim himself who had failed to recall having noticed the flashing blue light of the police bike shortly before the accident.

The court, presided over by Magistrate Claire Stafrace Zammit, observed that the evidence showed that the victim had ignored a zebra crossing ‘a few steps away’.

The accused could not have expected a pedestrian to cross at that point and besides, the police officer was driving very slowly, as evidenced by the slight nature of the impact, the court observed.

The court was convinced that the accident had been caused through the victim’s own negligence which gave rise to “an instantaneous emergency” forcing the accused to swerve suddenly so as to avoid knocking down the pedestrian.

For this reason, the court declared the accused not guilty and acquitted him of all charges.

Lawyer Arthur Azzopardi was defence counsel.