A woman who blamed a driver for a traffic accident which caused her a 10 per cent disability has been found to have been partly responsible for the crash, which happened when she tried to get intimate with him as he drove.

The man had denied responsibility, claiming he was startled by the woman's actions.  

The case happened in San Ġwann in September 2012 when the driver and the woman had been heading home after having allegedly been drinking in a bar in Għargħur. The car crashed into a tree on a centre strip.

Following the crash the woman suffered severe head injuries to the extent that she was in an induced coma for some time, and subsequently suffered disabilities which affected her social life and her work.

The woman subsequently sued the driver, his mother as owner of the vehicle, and Gasan Mamo Insurance.

Gasan Mamo successfully argued that the vehicle was insured on the driver’s mother and ‘any driver over 25’ but the driver was still 24 at the time.

The mother said she had not known that her son was not covered by insurance.

The driver said the woman, whom he had hardly known, was solely responsible for the accident as she had startled him when she tried to be intimate with him while driving. He insisted he had only had had "a few sips" of drink although he confirmed that he had invited her to meet him "for a bottle of wine".

He could not recall the woman’s position at the time of the incident.

She could not recall anything related to the incident or the messages exchanged earlier with the man, although she said it was likely that the messages were hers since they were sent from her phone.

The court said the evidence showed that the accident was not caused by excessive speed but by circumstances which led the driver to lose control.

It had resulted that the woman was not wearing a seatbelt. The driver had a strong smell of alcohol and refused a breathalyser test.

While the allegation about the woman’s behaviour immediately before the incident could not be corroborated by other witnesses, court experts who had examined the vehicle found the position she was in contributed greatly to her injuries.

The fact that she had not been sitting as a passenger normally would was shown by the fact that parts of her hair were picked up near the car's airconditioning unit, leading the court to believe the version of events given by the driver.   

The woman’s injuries would not have been so serious had she been wearing a seatbelt, the court said.

The woman was found to be one-third responsible for the accident. The driver was two-thirds responsible because of negligent driving while under the effect of alcohol. He was ordered to pay damages of €10,725.12.