TMID Editorial: Safety on our roads
It was a tragic week on Malta's roads, as three people died in three separate accidents all on Tuesday in different places around the country.40-year-old Indian national Balu Ganesh Balakrisha died in a head-on collision in Zebbug in the morning, 77-
It was a tragic week on Malta's roads, as three people died in three separate accidents all on Tuesday in different places around the country.
40-year-old Indian national Balu Ganesh Balakrisha died in a head-on collision in Zebbug in the morning, 77-year-old Carmen Buttigieg, from Zebbug, died in an accident in Qormi when she was hit by a van in the afternoon, and 33-year-old Colombian national Cristi Alejandra Robles Valderrama died in a motorcycle accident at 11pm in Rabat.
Robles was riding pillion when the motorcycle crashed into an electricity pole. The person driving the motorcycle, who is also Colombian, is in critical condition.
This dark day on Malta's roads brings the total number of road fatalities this year up to 8 - the same tally as this time last year.
Amidst the reactions to the news, the organisation Doctors for Road Safety emphasised that the cases should be investigated by the Transport Safety Investigative Commission - a now long-promised institution which is yet to be set up.
"The dynamics of these fatal crashes seem to be different and should ideally be investigated by the planned Transport Safety Investigative Commission, which to date has not yet been set up. Only then can we plan on the best interventions to optimise road safety and achieve our vision of zero deaths on our roads," the organisation said.
The idea behind this commission was to investigate fatal road accidents and work hand in hand with magisterial inquiries to come up with recommendations for the authorities to implement so that similar accidents can be avoided.
The intention to set this commission up was announced in December 2022 by then-Transport Minister Aaron Farrugia after a year in which a record 26 people died on Malta's roads - the equivalent of one person every two weeks.
Farrugia has since been binned from Cabinet and consigned to the backbenches by Prime Minister Robert Abela, people are still dying on Malta's roads (albeit, thankfully, with less frequency than in 2022), and this Commission is still nowhere to be seen.
It initially seemed like the Commission would be set up by the end of 2023 - at least this was the target set by the government itself in a document issued earlier in the year, but now as we go into the final quarter of 2024 it is still yet to be brought into existence.
Doctors for Road Safety are right to say that fatal accidents like these need to be investigated by a purpose-built authority. Not every accident will point towards a structural failure: sometimes the cause is human error, other times it is just a plain lack of luck - but there are some accidents which no doubt can be avoided.
It is those accidents from which the authorities must learn, and after which changes must be made so that - at the very least - no life is lost as a result of any shortcoming again.
Related
Share this page
Guest Posts by Easy Branches
