Malta tops road safety scoreboard

The Maltese perception that driving in Malta is sometimes shoddy was scientifically proven incorrect yesterday when the European Commission unveiled its first 'road safety scoreboard'.

According to the study, Malta last year had the safest roads in all the European Union and has managed to reduce its number of fatal road accidents by 38 per cent over the five-year period starting in 2001, when the EU's road safety action plan was introduced.

According to the scoreboard, during 2006 Malta had only 10 fatal road accidents against 16 in 2001. This was also the lowest level in the past five years.

The scoreboard also shows that 96 per cent of Maltese drive with their seatbelts on, a performance surpassed only by France where this reached 97 pet cent. On the other hand, Malta has the lowest record in the EU of back-seat passengers wearing their seat belt. In 2006 only 28 per cent wore it.

A spokesman for the Commission told The Sunday Times that Malta is performing very well in road safety and the statistics show that people are becoming more aware of the way they drive.

"The continuous road safety campaigns in Malta are evidently giving results. A lot of road safety measures have also been put in place, like the narrowing of certain arterial roads. Although this may sound frustrating for certain drivers, it looks as if it is also contributing to lower incidents in Malta, particularly where fatal accidents are involved."

The EU strategy in this area is to stimulate member states to increase road safety and so halve fatal road accidents by 2010, reducing the total number of deaths from almost 50,000 to 25,000.

Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot told the media in Brussels on the EU's first road safety day, yesterday, that the EU's action plan may reach its target on schedule.

The figures, released yesterday, show that during the past 12 months there was an eight per cent reduction in fatalities in the EU. In 2006, nearly 12,000 lives were saved in the EU in comparison with 2001.

"Thanks to the concerted efforts of the EU we can reach our target in 2010, provided we stay on course. There is no guarantee of this, however, so we need to maintain our efforts," he said.

The results from the countries it covers vary greatly. For example, five to 30 per cent of road deaths result from accidents involving at least one driver over the legal alcohol limit.

Up to 50 per cent of drivers do not observe speed limits; 67 to 97 per cent of occupants of cars or light vans wear front seat belts, but only 28 to 89 per cent do so in the back.

The most dangerous places to drive in the EU are Latvia and Lithuania, where fatal road accidents account to 177 and 223 per million inhabitants, respectively.