Road rules there to be broken

I was intrigued by Joanne Mifsud Micallef's letter ('Impoled' In Valletta, August 17) outlining the "accident" she and her husband had while driving up South Street towards Castille. She is upset that there was no warning about the "obstructive pole" in the road, placed there to stop cars going through. Yet by her own admission, there were "no entry" signs down the road but she blames the heat and the sun for failing to see them!

The problem with most drivers in Malta is that they never look at street furniture: If they want to take a short cut, or stop to buy a newspaper or some pastizzi they just ignore any road signs. Here in Mellieha, as I drive down a one-way street to visit my daughter, more often than not I have to avoid colliding with vehicles coming the wrong way. And when I mention it is a one-way street, more often than not the answer is "I don't live around here", as if each town in Malta has its own individual road signage!

The truth is that in Malta, rules are there to be broken, and the law is hardly ever enforced (and when it is by traffic wardens, drivers get upset). I have driven for 40 years in London and all over the UK, but for the first year of driving in Malta, I just couldn't believe what I was seeing. On a two-lane carriageway, drivers stay in the outside (overtaking) lane driving at about 20mph, forcing others to overtake on the inside (an offence in any other civilised country). And do drivers know that cars have indicators for safety reasons? Believe me, you don't run your battery down if you use them.

Safe driving is keeping both hands on the steering wheel. In Malta the joke is that you recognise whether someone is a driver or not because the driver's right arm is always a deeper tan than the left one (due to the fact that it is always hanging out of the window). I have also lost count of the number of vehicles travelling at night with their lights off.

Some time ago, a woman wrote in The Times complaining that the driving test has been made too hard, and many are failing it. Great! Perhaps the new generation of drivers will not "lose control" of their vehicles, drive diligently, be aware of all road furniture and make our roads safer.