One of the people involved in designing the track used during the Paqpaqli event in 2015 told a court on Tuesday that he had not known where the spectators would be.
Furthermore, the track was designed for a different type of car – a Porsche 911 GT3 – and not a Porsche Spyder like the one which was used and which was involved in the crash.
The Porsche driver, Paul Bailey, and the members of the organizing committee are facing court action over the accident, which had left several people injured, some seriously.
Freelance driving instructor Frederick Dineuff, who works for German company Sport Driving GmbH, explained to the court via video conference how he had been engaged by the local representative for Porsche to perform some demo laps with potential and existing customers during the charity event.
He told the court that he travelled to Malta on 1 October with fellow instructor Thomas Theodoros Bangma. The pair were accommodated at San Anton Palace during their three-day stay.
Dinieuff was asked to recall the testimony he had given to the inquiring magistrate, where he had said that he had been involved in the design of the track but had nothing to do with the barriers around it.
The witness said "someone from the organization" had supplied them with a "blueprint" of the track used in the previous year. He could not recall who that person was.
Dineuff said he had fine-tuned the plan, introducing two chicanes and braking zones as safety features to reduce speed since there would be amateurs driving two Porsche 911 GT3 models at high speed, catering for a maximum speed limit of 200km/hr.
The witness said his brief was to set up a safe track to ensure that attendees would have a good time but said he and his colleague had had nothing to do with safety measures around the track such as barriers.
Dineuff said his team did not know where the spectators would be, pointing out that he had only been in communication with the local Porsche representative, and not with the organizing team.
Asked by lawyer Gannella de Marco, the witness said he could not recall whether he had pointed out that the track was designed for a GT3, and not for a Spyder, but pointed out that no accidents had taken place during testing with the GT3.
Replying to questions by the lawyer, Dineuff said Paul Bailey had carried out a different maneuver from theirs. "He went straight to the chicane, he went faster, much faster it seemed to me."
Later in the sitting, the lawyers for Bailey and the 13 former members of event's core committee raised a number of legal arguments.
De Marco and lawyer Stephen Tonna Lowell, who are both representing Paul Bailey, said their client had been asked to testify more than once in the course of the magisterial inquiry, and this in between facing neurosurgical interventions for the injuries suffered in the crash.
They said his statements had been given without the assistance of a lawyer, and as such should be declared inadmissible.
They also requested the separation of proceedings in respect of Paul Bailey and the other co-accused, arguing that the defence was logically different.
The lawyers said all answers given by witnesses and experts in respect of the other co-accused, should be declared inadmissible vis-à-vis Paul Bailey, as were the reports drawn up by four court-appointed experts, since these had been "contaminated" by the foreign Porsche experts called in to assist in the inquiry.
Specific reference was made to the expert appointed to report on the dynamics of the accident.
Tonna Lowell also argued that it was "unacceptable" to have an expert draw up a report and deliver an opinion when he has "no expertise on the matter."
The lawyer labeled the expert in question as "manifestly incompetent since he possesses no qualification save for a one-year evening course on motor mechanics."
Lawyer Joe Giglio, appearing for Tonio Darmanin, also raised the inadmissibility of the statements released by his client without legal assistance.
Lawyer Stefano Filletti took the argument a step further by saying that the discarded statements had to include all documents requested of the accused when there had been no lawyer to assist them.
Lawyer Arthur Azzopardi said none of the experts and laboratories employed in the gathering of evidence were in conformity with ISO standards.
Magistrate Aaron Bugeja gave the lawyers for the victims one month within which to rebut these arguments in writing, so that a decision could then be taken by the court. The case continues in May.
from The Malta Independent https://ift.tt/2GMEeOb
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