Sprinkling water on roads is dangerous practice

I have been riding motorcycles all my life. My dad always had bikes and he bought his first car when my mum was pregnant with me. When I got to the age of 18 I bought my first bike and I have been riding ever since. I don't own a car, I use my motorcycle as my only means of transport; I ride to work and work to ride. There are many other people in Malta who live my lifestyle.

Many people and authorities do not consider the dangers a driver and especially a rider encounters on his daily drives/rides. I can make an endless list of dangers since most of us only consider the potholes on our road surfaces, but unfortunately as a rider I have to be more cautious as I see more dangers around.

I appeal to the authorities concerned to stop using oil-based paint on pedestrian crossings and road markings because it slips so badly. (I have travelled abroad quite a few times and never saw such thing).

The worst thing you can encounter while riding a bike is a patch of oil or diesel. Granted, some spills are accidental, but I cannot accept the fact that to keep our roundabouts and traffic islands nice and shiny we have to sprinkle water all over the road!

The use of sprinklers has to be done in a more cautious manner. We cannot have this nonsense any longer. When will it stop? When someone dies? Do the people who install and set these sprinklers have any idea of the danger they are causing?

I had the misfortune to skid due to this nonsense and besides that I damaged my bike badly. After having to spend a week in bed to recover, a few weeks after my accident I was back on the road and while riding through the Kappara roundabout I noticed gardeners on this famous landmark. I had to stop and have a word with them so perhaps they could better understand the danger they were causing. What did I get? Their answer was, what do you do if you are riding and it starts to rain?

I could not believe what they had just said. Riding in the rain is a totally different thing: You ride and you know that the road is slippery so you take extra precautions. But riding on dry roads and coming upon a huge amount of water is totally different especially when you stop and think that this is done in such a careless manner at the expense of others. Riding in bad weather conditions is one thing but creating a hazard is another.

Unfortunately we live on an island where anything goes - until someone has the misfortune of dying.