Penalties to drivers who cause injury or disability to people must reflect nature of injury – PN MP
PN MP Joe Giglio has said that the penalties given to drivers who have caused injury or disability to victims of traffic accidents must reflect the nature of the victim’s injury, saying that previous sentences given by courts have been too light on drivers.
In a speech in Parliament on Wednesday, Giglio was addressing what he termed as various shortcomings of a bill which will introduce harsher penalties for traffic contraventions. New fines were announced earlier this year, imposing heftier penalties on irresponsible driving.
Giglio said that he doubted whether the new traffic regulation law will serve as a deterrent to drivers, questioning its practicality due to a lack of enforcement, as well as a large backlog in the tribunals and courts with regards to traffic accidents.
“We need to do more than this, if we want our roads to become safer,” Giglio said.
He said that magistrates Victor Axiak and Yana Micallef Stafrace have both been assigned many cases of dangerous driving.
Giglio said that in our courts, we have only two magistrates allocated with handling cases of dangerous driving, and despite the magistrates’ commitment, their “enormous load” keeps increasing, creating a backlog, and consequently, cases take way longer to * be heard.
“This mentality shows that the enforcing of these fines does not have the impact they desire. It is not enough that we increase fines. Enforcement towards these laws include giving resources to our courts, so that they can enforce, and have a legislation serving as a deterrent,” Giglio said.
He continued that problems faced are a huge backlog of cases, and a lack of coordination, saying that most of these cases take long to be heard as the office of the Attorney General would delay issuing a procès verbal so that the magistrate can continue their work, leading to the deferring of cases due to backlog.
Giglio said that when it comes to practice, the lack of resources and difficulties faced show that the impact the new traffic regulations are meant to impose, would not be reached.
He also raised concerns over the police only being able to conduct breathalyser tests on drivers under the influence of alcohol, yet one for drugs has not been implemented.
Giglio said that with the recent law allowing the responsible use of cannabis, persons can smoke the plant and drive simultaneously. He said that there is no effective enforcement to ensure that drivers do not drive under the influence of drugs.
Recent criticism which rose over the lightness of a sentence given to a driver, who ran over a woman, leading to her suffering considerable disabilities, raised the question of an amendment to the criminal code.
Giglio said that Article 226 of the Criminal Code must be amended to ensure that the penalties established for those who cause injury to others in a traffic accident are reflective of the gravity of the injury.
“We need to consider different penalties according to the level of damage done to the victim, due to the careless driving of someone else,” Giglio said, adding that the criminal code should impose light penalties if the accident was light, and heftier penalties in case of a grave incident.
Giglio continued that the traffic situation in the country remains rampant, with a reality that many experience traffic jams in the country’s roads.
“If we want to be honest with ourselves, we must acknowledge that the traffic problem in the country is still there, as we have not addressed it enough,” Giglio said.
He said that the new bill, despite the aims it says it wants to address, will not serve as an efficient deterrent for dangerous driving, and much more can be done.
Giglio said that incentives should be increased for car-pooling, and encouraging people to avoid using their personal cars.
“There must be enforcement, more resources to magistrates who have the function to enforce this legislation, address the breathalyser test and ensure that the laws which are already there are implemented and used in practice,” Giglio said.
Giglio said that the aim must be to reduce incidents, instead of wasting time with propaganda related to investments and boasts about better roads.