Her husband Aldo Lombardi told Lovin Malta that this theory has been backed up by an eyewitness, who saw Marie Claire skid on the olive paste and oil and crash.

He said that another eyewitness, who had passed through the roundabout at around 5pm that day, had spotted whole olives and a fallen crate on the floor. Seeing as the roundabout is so busy and the olives would have been crushed by moving vehicles, this indicates that the olives had just fallen onto the road.

This second eyewitness had also spotted a blue pickup van, which was loaded with more crates full of olives, park by the roundabout and saw a man get out of the vehicle.

She didn’t have enough time to observe the man’s actions, but by the time Marie Claire Lombardi rode through the roundabout, the olives had been crushed to a paste and oil had been extracted by moving traffic, while the crate had disappeared.

He said that while there weren’t any cameras directly overlooking the roundabout, there are cameras further up in the vicinity and police are currently analysing the footage.

Aldo Lombardi is urging anyone with information that could prove how the olives ended up in the middle of the road to come forward.

“It’s a very busy roundabout and many people have already contacted me firsthand to inform me that they had passed through it that same day,” he explained. “If there is another eyewitness or a driver with dashcam footage that captured the moment the crate of olives fell, I urge them to go to the police.”

He also urged the person or people who left the olives in the middle of the road by the roundabout to come forward of their own free will.

Marie Claire Lombardi was a hairdresser who was well-loved for her altruistic and bubbly personality and news of her death last month led to an outpouring of grief.

Cover photo: Left: The scene of Marie Claire Lombardi’s accident, showing olive paste by the roundabout, Right: Aldo and Marie Claire Lombardi