How many more must die before we act?
Five people died in traffic accidents over a span of ten days – four in the same day, on Saturday 12 August, in what surely was one of the worst days for road fatalities in Malta. Two people were mowed down by cars while crossing the roads in a type of accident that has become an all-too-common occurrence in Malta. The other two victims died in a head-on crash between an ambulance and a car, in a surreal incident that showed that you can never be 100% safe on the road.
Another person – a mother of three – died in another horrible crash on the Mosta-Mgarr road on Sunday. In a cruel twist of fate, the woman’s sister had died in a very similar accident, just a few metres away, in 1993.
While fatal traffic accidents happen in every country around the world, the shocking number of fatalities in such a short stretch of time is surely a sign that something is very wrong in this country. We will not, and cannot go into the merits of these cases because not all the information is available to us and it is the responsibility of the courts, not a
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But let us take, for example, the latter incident. The long (by our standards) Mgarr road often serves as an unofficial racing track for very irresponsible drivers sitting behind the wheels of fast cars. Dangerous overtaking is a very common sight on this particular road. Accident after accident has taken place on it but the authorities have never seen fit to install a central crash barrier. Some of our readers will not agree with this approach as, in today’s fast world, few have the patience to drive behind a cumbersome tractor or the much-hated Sunday drivers; but many others would rather drive slow and live, than risk their lives while trying to get to their destination a full two minutes earlier. With Malta’s poor road infrastructure you’re bound to get clogged up at the next roundabout anyway.
But apart from the lack of central strips and crash barriers, accidents are often the result of a lack of education, sheer arrogance and unnecessary risk-taking.
The fact is that enforcement on the roads is still pretty much inexistent and fines are not much of a deterrent. You only have to go back a couple of months, when a court handed down a community work sentence, an €80 fine and a three-month suspension of license to a new driver who drove recklessly and killed the young mother of a baby in an early morning accident in Naxxar.
It is often said that traffic fatalities should not become just another statistic but, unfortunately, that largely seems to be the case in Malta. Each fatal accident shocks the country for a few hours but is forgotten by the following morning. The only ones who do not forget are the ones left grieving at home.
Enforcement has to be stepped up significantly if we are to reduce the number of road fatalities. Likewise, penalties for accidents caused by sheer recklessness have to be harshened greatly. There is also a matter of education. Just like children are taught about diversity and the dangers of smoking, dinging and drugs, they should also be made aware, from a young age, about irresponsible driving and its very ugly consequences.