Measures to better control traffic at 'dangerous' Żejtun road

Improved road signs and pelican lights will be installed along Anton Buttigieg Street in Żejtun by the end of the year in an attempt to control speeding traffic in this road.

Works on the road, that last month claimed the life of a young family of three, will begin once quotations are issued at the end of the month, a spokesman for the Transport Ministry said.

The transport authority's network infrastructure directorate will be introducing traffic-calming measures that will include upgrading two pedestrian crossings to pelican lights, introducing a third pelican crossing, installing better signage such as stop signs, and adding road markings including centre strips, the spokesman said.

Over the past decade six people died on Anton Buttigieg Street, two of the victims having been elderly pedestrians, two drivers and the others passengers, according to statistics provided by the police.

"The main problem is not the geometry of the road per se but the motorists who drive along it at excessive speed, carelessly and with total disregard to the law and their safety and that of other road users," the spokesman said, adding that the new measures would address this.

Calls to take action to make this road in Żejtun safer resurfaced last week after the tragic death of Jonathan Seychell and his girlfriend Roxana D'Anastasi, both 20, and their three-year-old daughter Kelsey.

They were driving along the road, heading towards Marsascala, when Mr Seychell, who was at the wheel, overtook two cars and slammed into a bowser before hitting a wall.

The tragedy left four-year-old Lynill D'Anastasi without his parents and sister. He was spared because he was at his grandmother's house at the time of the accident.

Żejtun mayor Joe Attard had immediately called on the transport authority to publish and implement its plans for the road as soon as possible. He explained that, since 1996, the council had been asking the ADT to take action to make the road safer. He said plans had been on paper for the past year.

The ministry spokesman said in reply that Anton Buttigieg Street was classified as a residential road and, therefore, fell under the local council's responsibility when it came to the installation of signage, maintenance and introduction of speed-calming measures.

The transport authority (ADT) was responsible for arterial roads.

"In July 2008, following a series of meetings between the ADT and the Żejtun local council, it was agreed that the council would carry out the necessary works... In April 2009, since the local council had not carried out any of the aforementioned works, the network infrastructure directorate decided that, for safety reasons, it would carry out the works itself," the ministry spokesman said.

But the Żejtun mayor said this was "a blatant lie". For the past years the council had been asking the authority to recognise the road as an arterial road given that it was effectively used as one, Mr Attard said. In 2007, the ADT accepted to carry out the works on the road and, in so doing, it accepted that it was not a residential one, he added. In fact, the original road plans were issued by the ADT in October 2007. Since then, Mr Attard said, the authority had not given a copy of the plans to the local council and there was no correspondence on the subject. The council received a copy of the plans on Friday following a formal request, he said.