Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1497950
NEWS 5 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 26 APRIL 2023 Driver who mowed down pedestrian at 110km per hour gets suspended sentence MATTHEW AGIUS A life was left shattered by the dangerous driving of 27-year- old Renald Aquilina, who left the courtroom with a three- year driving ban and suspend- ed sentence after running over a 50-year-old woman at 110km per hour. Aquilina, from Gzira, caused life-changing injuries to his victim, a bank manager now suffering from short-term memory loss, unable to read at all, eat, or go to the toilet un- assisted. She was unable to testify about the 2016 incident, with her husband telling the court of how they were picking up the pieces of a life shattered by Aquilina's reckless driving, with the victim now allowed to retain her bank job in a less taxing role but not as manager. An eyewitness described how Aquilina was driving at consid- erable speed when he hit the woman at a pedestrian cross- ing, catapulting the victim into the air, across the central strip, before hitting the ground on the other side of the Gżira sea- front. Aquilina was driving his car on Triq ix-Xatt at 8:15pm on 16 September 2016, when he mowed down the pedestrian on the zebra crossing. Magistrate Yana Micallef Stafrace convicted Aquilina of causing grievous injuries to the victim, with dangerous and reckless driving, at 110km/hr in a built-up area, but handed down a suspended sentence. She said his age had been a mitigating factor, suspended a one-year prison sentence for four years, suspending his driv- ing licence for three years, and imposing a €1,683 fine. He was also under a three- year treatment order for drug addiction. Inspector Lara Butters pros- ecuted. Charles Mercieca was defence counsel. 27-year-old Renald Aquilina gets suspended prison sentence, magistrate citing age as mitigating factor, despite causing life-changing injuries to 50-year-old bank manager