Thursday, 9th July 2009
Two men die in Luqa crash
Photo: Jason Borg.
Two men were killed instantly when the car they were in crashed into a roadside tree in Luqa, yesterday evening.
Paul Laus, 52, of Valletta and his passenger, Joseph Cassar, 77, of Marsa, were in a Kia Avella travelling along the inner lane of Council of Europe Street when the accident happened.
A 30-year-old woman from Sta Venera, who was driving on the outer lane, was slightly injured when her Hyundai Excel crashed into the Kia after it hit a tree. She was rushed to hospital suffering from severe shock.
The accident occurred on the two-lane road just beyond the petrol station heading in the direction of the airport. That stretch is rather dangerous because it narrows at this point and barely allows vehicles to overtake.
The two men died on the spot. Sources close to the police said it seemed that neither the driver nor the passenger were wearing seat belts.
At one point a young man arrived on the scene and identified one of the victims, Mr Laus, to be his father. An identity card was also found on the victim.
Both men appeared to have sustained severe head injuries.
Sources said that the older man, Mr Cassar, was a tinsmith and a very familiar sight in Pieta where he used to make weather vanes and metal decorative items on the parapet of a house facing the sea.
The police were headed by Superintendent Stephen Gatt and Inspector Spiridione Zammit. Civil Protection Department director Peter Cordina was also at the scene.
The two lanes leading to Luqa were closed as a result of the crash and the many people who gathered to see what had happened were kept at a safe distance from the accident site.
Magistrate Edwina Grima, who is holding an inquiry, appointed a team of court experts, consisting of mechanical expert Joe Zammit, architect Richard Aquilina and Dr Mario Scerri, to draw up reports as part of the inquiry.
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Comments
What I suggest is that it is transformed to a one lane road with pavement on the sides (crash barriers look awful). The road leading to Gudja/Ghaxaq (the one where there is the Luqa cemetary) should be re-surfaced immediately (as it is worse than the moon) so that all traffic going to those two villages is deviated through that road. A roundabout just at the junction of that road (the main road and that street) should be set up as this would slow down cars in a natural way.
@ Giov De Martino
Did someone mentioned that the Goverment is responsable for this accident?
NO !! People said the ADT or for you they are the same because you know it is being operated by the blue eyed boys?
Can you neglect the fact that this stretch of road and others around the islands are in a pitful state and they need to be rebuilded or at least get some kind of maintanence or you so much blinkered that you can't notice this ?!!!
Any kind of safety precuations like crash barriers,wearing seat belts,driving at the suggested speed ,visible road markings, good grip roads/ asphalt, VRT to check that everything is working properly in vehicles,routine checks and enforcing and education by traffic policemen/wardens equipped with speed guns/breathelyser tests and introducing the point licensing system are all good to at least reduce the fatalities on our roads.
Doing nothing of the above would be surely NOT the solution to this problem Mr. De Martino!!
So speed cameras wouldn't have averted this tragic accident. Yes maybe they weren't using belts, but for me the sole cause of this accident is the uneven surface of the road, and with the slightest mistake you find you are heading for a tree. Just check from the records how many youths have lost control of their bikes and died hitting a tree.
It's useless we remove trees as then will finish smashed to the wall , the road have to be build with good tarmac
I am disgusted that extentive works were done on the road from luqa roundabout to MIA and this road which is so frequented by thousands of cars has not yet been given some decent tarmac. ADT STAND UP AND DO SOMETHING!!!!!! ROADS WHICH YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE OF ARE TAKING PRECIOUS LIVES. and the road should be a double lane on each side!! it is possible to get it wider by demolishing some few meters from the fields! In marsascala bypass that is what is being done!!
1) ADT, Wardens and Police enforcing the use of seat belts CAN SAVE LIVES
2) Some steets which are converted to single-lane instead of double-lane CAN SAVE LIVES
3) Speed cameras when correctly set with reasonable limits CAN SAVE LIVES
We normally complain about the above restrictions but it's much better to have these safety precautions on our roads than have more fatal accidents. People who tend to grumble about these measures should think twice before critisizing the authorities concerned.
Having said that I think that some form of barriers will make this particular road safer.
May God be with the victim's families at this very sad moment of their lives. And may the 2 victims rest in peace.
Fact is that more people died on our awful roads just this year in Malta, than from this 'pandemic' flu in ALL of Europe. And what are we doing about this. Practically nothing.
The article seemed to imply that it is a place where people do overtake. I come to Malta for 3 months every year and never cease to be astonished at the risks people take when driving.
As to not wearing seatbelts, it beggars belief that people still drive without them, as the article suggests. Cars can sustain a lot of damage but people can't.
Only option 2 is safe. Option 1 increases the risks of head on collisions.
Also what about a speed camera? In terms of risks this is very similar to the one in Attard exactly where there is the famous speed camera.
Joseph
There should be one carriageway only on each side of the road.
And speed limit not to exceed 30 ( thirty ) mph!
That strech of road is very dangerous, I tend to use it 8 times a day. For many times I managed to contact Luqa local council to take action and the reply is always...resposability of ADT. Crash barrier would be an adequate solution.
With regards to making this road safer, i do not believe the solution is to remove the trees at all, personally i think this would be a very stupid act in this day and age when we are trying to regenerate greenery.
There are really 2 options
1) Remove the centre strip, this would give more room for over taking, how ever increases the risk of a head on collision....
2) Put up a crash barrier and reduce the roads to single lane, and encourage more people to use the other bypass to get to the airport.
How do you know the car was overtaking??
I'm sure we have seen much more seroius accidents without loss of lives. Cars are faster but safer from what they were some years ago. Wearing seat belts save lives, sometimes I used not to wear until a doctor from the emergency department at St. Luke's told me it's incredible what they see and how much worse if not fatal drivers/ passenges might have ended up by not following this simple law.
People, for your own safety, buckle up please.
That piece of road is very dangerous especially as people tend to pull out of the petrol station without more than a glance.
Thanks once again to the emergency services for their work.