Traffic fines review ordered not a day too soon

The Prime Minister’s announcement yesterday that he has ordered a review of the country’s traffic fines regime, particularly as regards drink driving, comes not a day too soon. In fact, such a review has been too long a time coming.

Speaking in a radio interview yesterday, the Prime Minister hit out at drunk drivers as irresponsible life-takers and hinted that draconian action could be taken to curb the practice, mentioning how in some countries people caught driving while intoxicate could be stripped of their licence for a year.

The Prime Minister also noted a recent surge in road accidents. Figures provided to this newspaper by the Mata Insurance Association show that over the current year there have already been 11 fatalities on Malta’s roads, while statistics published show that in the first three months of the year the number of reported accidents increased by four per cent while the number of persons injured increased by 29 per cent.

Malta, along with England, are the two European countries with the highest legal blood alcohol limits, at 80mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood, and calls are continuously being made to lower the threshold. Ireland and Scotland did so recently, when they dropped the threshold from 80mg, Malta’s limit, to 50mg.

In so doing, Ireland introduced a number of novel concepts that bear consideration. Learner, novice and professional drivers in Ireland face even harsher restrictions, with their limit now being set at 20mg, meaning that a single pint of beer, a glass of wine or a single measure of spirits could push many motorists over the legal limit. At present, Malta makes no such distinction between categories of drivers and their blood alcohol content levels.

Studies recommend that limits for drinking and driving should be reduced from 80mg to at least 50mg. A single alcoholic drink, according to studies, triples a driver’s risk of dying in a vehicle crash, and a small beer or glass of wine can increase a driver’s blood-alcohol level by more than half the legal limit.

Studies have found that even at the one-drink level, the chances of a fatal accident are three times higher than in a driver who has drunk no alcohol at all. That is half the risk of the 80mg drink-drive limit, which increases the chances of a fatal crash by at least six times. In drivers who are just over the limit, at up to 100mg blood alcohol level, the risk is 11 times higher. The exponential increase in the danger for drivers who have drunk a relatively small amount of alcohol is spelt out in the report.

The effects are particularly acute in younger people, who, according to the report, are less experienced drivers, are immature and have a lower tolerance to alcohol than older people.

While drunk driving is certainly a leading menace on the country’s roads, it is not the only one. In fact, all haphazard driving or any one-second lapse in concentration holds the potential to take a life.

From speeding drivers to drivers using their mobile phones and from people who refuse to indicate at roundabouts or before turning to those who fail to turn on their lights in tunnels, the risks on the road are anything but few and far between.

In Malta we are fortunate that distances covered are relatively small and that a combination of road lengths and traffic conditions rarely provide drivers the opportunity to put their vehicles to the test. One slip of the wheel, for example, on Germany’s autobahn often proves fatal. This simple fact is one that keeps Malta at the bottom of road death rankings in Europe. The potholed and bumpy roads we are so used to and about which we complain so much, may also play a factor in keeping speeds, and subsequently deaths, down. But, after all, any single death on the roads is one too many. On an almost daily basis, media statements from police corps, possibly the majority of them, tell of traffic accidents, many of which take place in the small hours of the morning.

What the system also needs is a root and branch reform of the way driving is taught, and, even more so, the way driving is regulated on our roads.

Those who have had driving lessons in schools in the United States and in other countries that also employ the practice will recall sitting through horrific videos showing traffic accident after traffic accident – gruesome footage that can make many wary of even taking the theory test, let alone taking to the open road. Scaring the living daylights out of prospective drivers before they take to the roads themselves can be a traumatising experience, but one that exposes students to the grim realities and the risks of driving.

The Maltese licensing authorities would do well to consider similar tactics for young drivers about to get their licences. Malta’s driving test regime has been strengthened and tightened up significantly of late, the abuse and bribery formerly inherent in the system appears to have been at least mostly dealt with and the new tests are far, far more demanding than those of years gone by.

While worthy strides have been taken in the licensing system, the authorities must really begin cracking down on driving contraventions, on even the slightest of infringements.

Those in positions of responsibility need to foster more discipline behind the wheel among the country’s ever-growing driving population. When drivers have it instilled in them, for example, to signal when making a turn, stop at zebra crossings or turn their lights on in tunnels, they will think more than twice before undertaking more dangerous manoeuvres – quite unnecessarily endangering their lives, the lives of their passengers and the lives of any pedestrians, drivers or passengers in their path.

The multitude of blatant traffic contraventions seen on a daily basis around the country is symptomatic of the country’s all-too-often haphazard driving culture.

Those responsible for enforcing traffic laws should be cracking down harder on the petty infringements, which are so symptomatic of a wider lack of responsibility on the part of many, if not the majority, of Malta’s drivers, that will help to engender more responsible attitudes across the board.