Two critical after car crash

Here's to Hon. Minister Austin Gatt.
Some suggestions.
Kindly delegate a good number of Professional Inspectors (even if you need to import foreigners to train our staff ) to drive around the country roads and identify potential hazards in the form of
1: Trees obstructing sign posts and overgrown trees obstructing vision.
2: Lamp posts in the middle of roads and in dangerous corners.
3: Worn out road signs - illegible , broken , rusty, torn tape.
4: Unsafe carriage ways eg: going down the last turn of 't'Alla w ommu' - the car keeps going straight into the center strip when the road is slightly wet even when driving at 2kph .
5: Road corners which tilt outwards instead of inwards sending one off track.
6: Skips without fluorescent paint protruding outwards into the road.
7: open culverts - broken sidewalks - protruding sidewalk corners .
8: Huge sleeping policemen - high enough to ruin your car - there is a standard height for these -
The list is too long. I shall stop .

How about creating a website 'Smart Traffic' for us who use the internet so we may place our picture of what we also see as a road hazard together with the area and location . this will make things easier and more cost effective for your ministry.
You may even create an incentive of some sort to encourage feedback -
Maybe we can SAVE lives with our little contribution on the web.
Anyone in favour?

Many accidents can be avoided in my opinion.
Accidents NEVER happen - they are always caused and there is always a reason behind every injury or fatality.
Over speeding, drinking, distractions,bad road management, lack of proper road construction followup and regular maintenance .

I don t think that drink and drugs are the cause of all these accidents, cos it happens any time of the day people in Malta just don't know how to drive. Proper driving schools should be opened they should teach street rules properly with an adequate exam before passing to practice . And what about points on driving licence like in Italy when they finish there 20 points they have to go back to school payingl lessons again to have back their driving licence

Driving is a psychologoical war. Its a show of power and supremacy over other citizens, not to mention carelessness. What is causing this behaviour is a mistery. Perhaps there are deeper reasons for this. It is obvious that police officers are either not doing their duty, have lost all their power or simply gave up. The presence of police is surely lacking. What happened to VRT tests? Everytime I drive during the night I encounter an innumerable number of cars with defective or non-functioning lights. Its unbelieveable! I also worry about the functionality of other car basic safety features!

It is very silly to conclude that the drivers of all these accidents were drunk.
Many a reckless driver has been killed or even worst, killed others while being sober, but you cannot rule out alcohol or drugs!!!!
I live in Bugibba (very close to the square) and now that the weather is get warmer, a lot of young people congregate at the square.
It is very evident that a lot of them are beyond driving with the slurred speech and weird acting. Be it alcohol or drugs i will not get into, but these young people have to pull their socks up are be weary of the danger they impose on themselves and others.
I am not pointing fingers as I too was a fun loving teen and adult, but please be weary as these days it seems that roads are getting more dangerous than ever.
If you want to drink and use drugs its up to you, but please keep off the road as you are a threat to others!!!!

Although this was an accident that happened at night I wouldn't be so rash as to blame alcohol or other substance intoxication on this case.
The amount of dangerous driving here in Malta is simply incredible. People overtaking whole columns of cars, stopping in the middle of the road to go buy pastizzi across the street, double parking, triple parking, people pulling out from parking spots no matter who or what is coming along, no one using indicators, people taking your right of way from you when coming out of sidestreets... The list is endless. If the traffic police concentrated on REALLY enforcing traffic rules and not just on handing out parking tickets. Especially because of the high car-to-population ratio traffic regulations should be more strictly enforced so as to make traffic a less stressful and dangerous affair.

I HAVE JUST RETURNED FROM MALTA , JUST 3 WEEKS AGO , AND NOTHING HAS CHANGED IN REGARDS TO THE TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT ,, IN FACT IF ANYTHING IT GOT WORST FROM 10 YEARS AGO WHEN I WAS HOME,
CATCHING A TAXI FROM THE AIRPORT TO MY HOME TOWN LEFT ME BREATHLESS AND PETRIFIED AS HE DUCKED AND WEAVED THRU TRAFFIC , COMMING SOMETIMES MILLIMETRES FROM THE OTHER CARS AS THEY TRIED TO MUCLE IN ON OUR LANE... MALTA NEEDS A ROAD TRAFFIC AUTHORITY THAT ENFORCES ROAD RULES EVEN IF IT MEANS COFISCATING THE CARS OF THESE HOONS FROM THE ROADS .

I just cannot believe the comments on here. The only reason that there are so many accidents on these islands is that people all think that they are like Formula 1 drivers and they are invincible. I have never seen the police stop anyone for dangerous driving or drink driving. I have lived here for 22 years and as time has gone by things have got worse. Park where you want, no indicators, pull out in front of anyone and drive as fast as you want to. As long as drivers flaunt the laws there will be accidents and fatalities. Get the police to do the job they are paid to do and things may improve. It will take time but I don't aim to be another statistic on these roads.

I totally agree with Sarah Borg. At least people could show some sympathy amidst all their speculative pontificating!!

On a positive note...both girls are not suffering from any life threatening injuries, as initially reported.

Many seem to be speculating that the crash was a result of driving under the influence of alcohol, drugs, or speeding. Had the accident happened during the afternoon, would we have less people inventing probable causes?

The Malta Govt should enforce drinking under the influence laws. Drunk drivers are also a menace to others. I just hope that when accidents like this one happen they take a blood sample and check for substance abuse at the hospital. Then one can be for sure if the driver was impaired or not.

i think that people should stop judging and mind their own business. had it been one of your relatives i'm sure you would not have commented if that was the case. unless you were present you do not know what really happened so before you make rash judgments think twice!!

Mr Vella assumes that the cause of this accident is speed, full stop. Ms Bianchi has speculated that alcohol consumption was involved, a speculation. Mr Cremona advocates more speed cameras. It could have been speed, it could have been alcohol consumption, would a speed camera 100 metres up or down the road made any difference. Could there have been an element of fatigue or intoxication with other substances? All these questions about this case and about other traffic incidents could be answered if a serious investigation would be carried out in every case. The truth is that there are not enough technical personnel available or the resources to investigate every serious incident. If comprehensive investigation findings are in fact collected than they must be available for scrutiny and statistical analysis. Investigations on traffic incidents in Malta can never be considered comprehensive since Malta has been singled out (with Italy) as a country that holds no statistics on drink related traffic incidents. I would further speculate that there are even less attempts to quantify traffic incidents related to drug taking. Traffic incident analysis in Malta is a shambles, authorities are in denial and with a narrow mind sticking to their belief that traffic incidents, injury and fatalities are always the result of excessive speed, while in the rest of Europe excessive speed is the cause of less than 30% of injuries and fatalities. Drug taking, alcohol intoxication, tiredness and inattention make up most of the rest. Ms Bianchi’s call for checks on drink driving will fall on deaf ears because of commercial interests against the use of breathalyzers and the curbing of excessive consumption of alcohol. Do your readers know how difficult it is to prosecute somebody who caused an accident while under the influence of drink? Even high alcohol levels measured during the course of recovery in hospital is not admissible in court because a person has the right to refuse to give a blood sample which could incriminate him or her in court. It seems to be everyone’s business to favour speed as the only cause of road traffic incidents.

Friday and Saturday nights have become notorious for the amount of crazy driving which takes place. The majority of driving during these times is done by young people under 30. Drivers under 30, especially, but not exclusively males, like to show off. Once behind the wheel, many drivers, especially young ones, tend to take risks which they would not normally take had they not been driving - research shows that a change takes place in people's psyche once they enter a car and start driving. So what you have on Friday and Saturday nights, is a situtation where a large number of young drivers are on the roads, not only wanting to show off, but also to compete against each other. Moreover, the fact that these young drivers are many times slightly, or seriously drunk, is also an important factor. When drunk, people will take even greater risks.

This, in a nutshell, is the crux of the problem. This problem persists all over the world, of course, however, on a tiny island like Malta, it is more evident. So, one asks, what is there to do? In reality, you cannot stop all traffic fatalities which take place during the nights of the weekend. What you can do is try to prevent them to a greater degree. How is this done? Well, for starters, the police must start getting themselves more onto the streets doing patrols during the weekend. Furthermore, the police should use breathalyzers to a greater extent, while still maintaining the cautionary discretion required. I am told that breathalyzers are not commonly used on our roads. Another important, and this time preventative measure would be to install more speed cameras - having a single speed camera on a long (by our standards) road is almost completely useless.

The sad fact is that there is absolutely no space for high speed driving in Malta - this coupled with the fact that young drivers tend to be reckless and sometimes tipsy during weekend nights, and that many Maltese roads are designed to cause accidents (this is so because of the lack of space to construct better-designed roads), is a recipe for disaster.

I appeal to young drivers to recognise the fact that although high speed driving is fun, it's as dangerous as playing with electricity. Enjoy life, go out with friends, go on dates, but don't end up paralysed or six feet under - there aren't too many hot gals and nice lads in graves.

I do not know the circumstances of this case.
However we need to have a massive anti drink and drive campaign and police on the road on Friday and Saturday night performing breathalyzer tests with very tough penalties and fines for offenders found over the legal limit.

More injuries, more wrecked lives. More expenses, more insurance claims, insurance companies push up rates for all concerned, more work for hospital staff, more medical care, more work for staff at Mater Dei, more work for rescue units and expenses to the public fund. Can't this be possibly reduced.
Teach and enforce.

Isn't it about time that more traffic police patrol the roads and more speed cameras are installed. How many more accidents before any action is taken?.

It is indeed high time to re-launch an educational 'Kill Your Speed...Not Yourself or Your Loved Ones' campaign.