Jet-skis, boats and accidents

Five years ago I was going to end up a victim of a jet-ski incident at Ghajn Tuffieha Bay. Two persons, driving (or better still, trying to drive) a jet-ski lost control of it, ending up driving through swimmers. It was mere luck that no one got hurt and that I managed to dive not to get hit by the jet-ski. All I remember when resurfacing was the face of the persons on board looking back to check what they had done. They were smiling, perhaps relieved that they had not seen a lifeless, floating body.

When trying to find out who these people were, I was told by the person who actually rented the jet-skis in the vicinity that he did not know whether it was one of his jet-skis, and so he could not be of much help. Up till then, rightly so!

When I asked about the procedure used to rent jet-skis, I was told that the person who wants to drive the jet-ski is asked to read a set of rules to follow when using the jet-ski, and then he or she is left on his/her own.

In a state of shock I went back home and decided to file a police report about the incident. When I phoned my district police station, the one at Zabbar, I was told that to file the report, I had to go back to Mosta, which I did not do.

However, I tried to start off a campaign on a local newspaper about these incidents and on one particular occasion, the parliamentary secretary responsible promised to take action to improve the situation. But have we seen this improvement? Of course not!

Unfortunately, in this country I rarely fail to be disappointed. The amount of jet-skis and more powerful boats are on the increase, and so is irresponsible driving of these vehicles at sea. Just last week I was involved in an argument with a jet-ski driver at Marsascala Bay because he insisted that he could drive his jet-ski at 20 knots barely 40 metres from the shore! This is not a one-off case. While swimming across the bay, I and other swimmers would have to stop, waving at boats several times to make drivers aware that there are swimmers around, because some of them do not even bother to reduce speed once they enter the bay.

So isn't it high time that these irresponsible actions at sea are controlled? Authorities have an obligation to enforce the law. How come no-one is ever around to stop this irresponsible driving, which in my opinion might turn out to be worse than irresponsible driving on the roads?

An irresponsible driver on the roads has a number plate or often ends up crashed into some wall. An irresponsible driver at sea cannot be easily identified, and can easily escape. I have seen enforcement at sea taking place in swimmers' zones such as Selmun Bay, but other areas which are not swimmers' zones but still popular for swimming are not being monitored.

Moreover, how come one needs to have a licence to drive a car but not to drive these vehicles? And finally, how come the handing of jet-skis to inexperienced drivers is done from the shore? Why aren't they driven out to the open sea by the person renting these vehicles and handed away from swimmers?

I promise to keep this letter, and I hope that in five years' time I would not feel the need to send it to the editor of this newspaper again!