Eleven-year-old Angelique Attard was awarded e29,000 in damages last week for a permanent disability suffered when the school min-van she was in collided with a car in Triq San Aristarku, St Paul's Bay.

The accident took place on 29 January 2004, when Angelique was six years old. She was on her way home in the mini van, driven by Raymond Xerri, after finishing school at St Dorothy's School, Zebbug. The collision occurred when a car driven by Wafaa Muscat Es Samlaly shot out of a side street without stopping. The mini-van, however, was speeding and people in the street thought two trucks had collided. The van hit a building on the other side of the road and the child ended up under the seat and hitting her head, which resulted in a scar 4.3cm long that is now a permanent reminder of the accident.

The court, presided over by Mr Justice Lino Farrugia Sacco, established damages at e29,000, (seven per cent disfigurement) and assigned 80 per cent responsibility to the driver and 20 per cent to the mini-van driver because a main road user should not be a main road abuser, it said.