A Maltese transport organisation has won a legal ruling freeing it from a £1 million compensation claim brought by an Aberdeen football coach who was badly injured on a sight-seeing bus tour on the island.
Simon Morrison sustained serious head injuries when the open-top vehicle he was a passenger on collided with overhanging branches on a country road while he was on holiday with extended family.
Two other passengers, a Spanish woman and a Belgian man, died in the tragedy and the Middlefield Wasps coach was among several who were hurt.
The then 42-year-old was flown back to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary for continued treatment in the wake of the crash on April 8 in 2018.
His niece Kelsey Henderson was hailed as his heroine as she jumped to the aid of her uncle and helped keep him upright as blood poured from his mouth.
Mr Morrison raised an action against the tour bus firm’s insurers, Mapfre Middlesea, seeking damages for the injuries he suffered in the collision on the Valetta Road in Zurrieq.
The insurers in turn brought Transport for Malta, which is responsible for the grant of licences to tour bus operators, into the action as a third party.
They said it had a duty to ensure the safety, maintenance and security of distributor roads on the Mediterranean island.
Lawyers acting for the insurers appealed against Lord Richardson’s ruling arguing that he had erred in his approach to the issue.
But during a hearing before Scotland’s senior judge, the Lord President, Lord Carloway, sitting with Lord Malcolm and Lord Pentland, counsel for the third party maintained that the judge had set the correct approach and applied it to the facts.
Lord Carloway said in a judgement issued today that they agreed with the reasoning of Lord Richardson and refused the appeal.
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