In cases where someone suffers a permanent disability due to a traffic accident, court judgements should reflect “the extent of the permanent disability caused,” Nationalist Party MP Joe Giglio has said.

Giglio told The Malta Independent that currently, the maximum punishment for someone at fault for causing another person to suffer a permanent disability in a traffic accident is one-year imprisonment, and the maximum fine is €4,600, regardless of the gravity of the incident.

“Whiplash which could cause a 6% permanent disability, is not the same as someone who suffered an 80% disability. A broken leg is not the same as someone who is permanently paralysed.”

“Therefore, I was suggesting that we should change our law to create punishments that depend on the gravity or the extent of the disability caused.”

Giglio was contacted by this newsroom following Prime Minister Robert Abela’s comments on Thursday, where the Prime Minister indicated that the government has no intention of proposing harsher court punishments for those who cause traffic accidents which result in casualties, but instead placed pressure on judges and magistrates to hand down appropriate punishments within the limits of the law.

“If the punishments are applied the way they should be, then they are sufficient,” Abela said.

Instead of questioning the laws, Abela questioned: “Are our judges applying punishments which are reflecting the gravity of the act?”

During the parliamentary debate last week about a bill to introduce harsher traffic fines, Giglio had said that the court punishments given to drivers who have caused injury or disability to victims of traffic accidents must reflect the nature of the victim’s injury, saying that previous sentences given by courts have been too light on drivers.