Motorist who caused friend's death in traffic accident ordered to do community service

A man who accidentally killed a friend and work colleague in a traffic accident  just over two years ago has been ordered by a court to do 450-hours of community service after a magistrate heard how the family of the deceased were not seeking a custodial sentence, and the victim had been crossing the road in a poorly-lit section when a zebra crossing was close by. Vladimirs Puzanovs, a 27-year old Latvian national, had been behind the wheel of a Hyundai i10, on the night of December 16,2016 after a staff party at Bahar iċ-Cagħaq when he hit Dutch national Luc Clous, 20, who was crossing St Andrew’s Road, St Julian’s. Mr Clous, had been returning from the same party but with a different group of friends, inside another car when he was asked to get out after an argument that was about to boil over. The young man, with a blood alcohol concentration that was “twice that of the drink/drive limit and consistent with it producing a state of drunkenness in a normal social drinker”, was hit by the accused’s car which drove on and was found later parked at Birzebbuga. The victim was pronounced dead on site by paramedics who rushed to the scene shortly after 4am. Mr Puzanovs, who was...