Man sentenced to two years and six months in jail for causing death by reckless driving • 118 convictions for traffic offences from May to July |22 August 2021

The Supreme Court yesterday sentenced a man to two years and six months in prison for causing death through reckless driving and a fine of R25,000 has also been imposed on him which if not paid another term of six months imprisonment will be added to run consecutively.

Additionally the driving licence of the accused is suspended for five years.

Meanwhile out of 148 traffic offences that appeared before the Magistrate’s Court from the month of May to July this year there have been 118 convictions.

Going back to the case of reckless driving, the fatal incident happened on May 2, 2019, when the accused, Mark Gabriel of Mont Buxton now aged 24 years, caused the death of Romian Moses by driving a motor vehicle on the public road recklessly.

The accident occurred at Bel More, Mahé.

The accused pleaded guilty to the said charge and was convicted on his own plea of guilt on April 12, 2021.

A probation report on the accused states that he pleaded guilty because he feels remorse and regret at the incident and the victim was his own cousin. He also admits that he was driving the vehicle in which he and the victim were travelling. He states that he cannot recall the speed but admits he had lost control of his vehicle which resulted in the accident and subsequent death of his cousin who was the other passenger in the vehicle.

It is to be noted as borne out by the facts narrated by the prosecution that the accused lost control of the car which turned on its side onto the grass verge after hitting a retaining wall. Considering the fact that the victim had been thrown from the car into the sea water bordering the coast area due to the impact and the extensive damage to the car as borne by the photographs, it is clear that the vehicle had been driven at a high speed which was the reason he had lost control of the car.

Meanwhile going back to the traffic offences, 78 were related to exceeding the speed limit and 62 were fined between R1000 to R8000. Thirty-five (35) cases were related to not wearing seat belt and from that 25 were convicted to pay a fine of between R500 and R5000.

There were 15 cases where drivers were found to be driving a motor vehicle on the public road without a valid road fund certificate and 12 of these cases were convicted to pay a fine of between R2500 and R5000.

Six cases involved drivers using a hand held mobile phone while driving and all have been convicted to pay a fine of R1500.

Meanwhile there have been four cases where drivers have been found to be driving with alcohol concentration above the prescribed limit and three of them have been convicted to pay a fine of R5000.

A total of 30 cases were withdrawn or dismissed by the Court.

Other offences are related to unauthorised use of tinted windows, insurance certificates which are not valid, and parking offences.  

Compiled by Marie-Anne Lepathy