Minor traffic accidents, major traffic jams

Mario Tabone

Sep 25th 2009, 20:08

The other week I was in Malta and hired a car. I was advised not to move the vehicle if I was involved in an accident. I have been a police officer in the UK for 20 odd years and dealt with thousands of collisions. Here unless there are injuries or the drivers are making allegations against each other, the police hardly ever get involved. All that is required is for the drivers to exchange details and then inform their respective insurance companies who will sort everything out. That is why we pay insurance !!!!! The result of this is that roads get cleared very quickly and traffic can get moving again. Drivers organise the removal of the vehicles themselves through their insurance and the only thing that a police officer does if he attends the scene is to organise the local council to clear any debris or oil spilt on the road. In the case of more serious accidents of course the police take charge. We work with the other emergency services and if required we close the road altogether. A vehicle recovery scheme is operated and if required this is used to clear up.

Neville Calleja

Sep 24th 2009, 16:16

There are a variety of reasons why this happens:

a. absence of mass transit system (some argue that it would not be able to sustain itself)
b. lack of uptake of teleworking (mostly due to the stubborn close-mindedness of most directors in the public service who insist that teleworkers waste their time)
c. too many roundabouts and too little flyovers (mostly due to the prohibition of cost)
d. having to wait for wardens for the insurance report rather than being sufficiently incentivised to fill in the bumper to bumper forms as expeditely as possible

M. Baron

Sep 24th 2009, 16:07

whenever it rains the island is in a quandary...are we allergic to the liquid or what?
we are surrounded by water after all, we;re hardly denizens of the desert.. what will happen should it snow? why do i daily get the impression that i inhabit a keystone cops island?
should everyone carry a bumper stickers saying ...hellooooo...roads are slippery when wet...

Klaus Pedersen

Sep 24th 2009, 13:04

It is ridiculous that minor accidents lead to traffic jams and the delay of thousands of people. In some countries, you must move the vehicles immediately when there is an accident. The reason being, that safety and the flow of traffic takes precedence over the convenience of the insurance companies. And guess what: the insurance companies in those countries survive. So why not here? Why must we continue to endure these traffic jams?

karl Abela

Sep 24th 2009, 11:01

Our traffic management experts cannot do much. We do not have alternative roads to divert traffic. The planning of the roads back in the 60's was not taking into account such an increase in vehicles.

One solution would be to ban slow construction vehicles and car instructors from the roads between 7am and 9am. This is not democratic at all but it is a neccessity as we cannot do otherwise.

The other problem in Malta is VALLETTA.

The city is too much of a commercial centre and attracts thousands of workers which come from all over Malta. The roads leading to Valletta are therefore clogged partially because of the fact that Valletta is a peninsula, which effectively means that you can only come in to Valletta from Floriana. The bottle neck created at Floriana has a ripple effect all over Malta.

On a much smaller scale is Burmarrad. We have a first class road from Burmarrad to Mosta only to become a bottle neck with very slow moving traffic near the church. The result is a major traffic jam from Burmarrad to Mosta.

colin wilcox

Sep 23rd 2009, 21:38

In the uk you press a button on your car radio this allows your programs to be
interrupted and they give you any updates on the roads ie accidents road works
or flooding on the roads this allows you to take another way to get to your destination

Anthony Debono

Sep 23rd 2009, 20:53

@Jurgen Grech
I fully concur with your views.

From a technical point of view, a roundabout controls traffic but slows it down. A tip that I had learned from an AA book of advanced driving is "in slow, out fast" - meaning you go in slowly but exit the roundabout accelerating thus minimising congestion.

On a more realistic current situation, the fact that we have roundabouts and not flyovers is cost. Roundabouts cost a fraction of flyovers and normally have a smaller footprint (space-wise) to flyovers.

On a more pathetic and even more realistic situation, if we start building flyovers, you and I would be dead by the time they are finished. Remember the time taken to do a 100metre x2 stretch of bridge? Also, having a roundabout will generate business - e.g. landscaping, etc. with flyovers some businesses may go bust.

We need fresh blood (e.g. a NEW ADT or call it whatever) and something that we Maltese lack - accountability. Well, actually my list is quite long!

smifsud

Sep 23rd 2009, 19:02

Malta has thrived over the years ....now its gone full circle again and we are on our way down ....we have to think it all over again ...what have we done to our beautiful island ...ok its still a gem but with a lot of problems that are showing up all for the sake of greed for the rich ...malta is changing very quickly for my likeing ... i wish we kept it all simple like Hobz biz zejt ....

Paul Vella

Sep 23rd 2009, 16:51

In these islands we are blessed with at least 4 months of sunshine and total lack of rain which I believe is ample time to clean up the culverts, drainage systems, water ducts and what have you. And instead what does the relative department do, wait for the first rains and then after all the rubbish accumulates, blocks the drains and causes man holes to pop open with the resulting drainage to over-flow into the streets, cleans up the mess as they did in the Lija/B'kara area a couple of weeks ago. The area I am referring to is the bust stretch of road leading to the Lija cemetery. Then of course, we must also not forget the famous Salina canal...this job has been going on for the past 6 months. Is this the gift for the next millenium?

S Debono

Sep 23rd 2009, 13:56

All this flooding is the result of too much construction work. Government needs to plan and implement long term solutions that do not usurp the little greenery we have left.

Steve Evans

Sep 23rd 2009, 13:29

Incredibly no one seems to have mentioned that given the excessive building programme throughout the Maltese Islands, this has now become one of the root causes of much of the flooding today.

Peter Korsten

Sep 23rd 2009, 13:15

So... there is a valley, obviously created by millennia of rain, easily 10 metres deep. And what do we do? We build a road and buildings, and then we are surprised that it floods.

Christopher Vassallo

Sep 23rd 2009, 13:07

The surfaces of almost all roads in Malta are so worn, shiny by the coating of oil that covers it, that when it rains creates nothing less that an ice skating rink. This coupled with countless cars with bald tyres on the island results in you guessed it. Accidents. They happen every year.

G. Cachia. careful drivers??

T.Camilleri

Sep 23rd 2009, 12:53

@ Mr.Thake

During the Mintoff administration the Nationalist Party use to refer to the business community at valley road Msida as the Merchants of Venice.

22 years on, under a Nationalist government, can you spot any difference, after a few drops of rain.

It seems that the gondolas are still in fashion.

Christopher Debattista

Sep 23rd 2009, 12:40

Li ma nistax nifhem f'dan il-pajjiz kollox nofs xoghol u nofs Kedda - Gbajt nisma bl-istess problemi, jien noqghod l-Imsida , u nitqalla bit-traffiku li hawn - imma l-iktar li nitqalla bil-weghdiet li qatt ma nzammu, u farsa ohra gdida : Xi jridu jghidu biha din li jirrangaw NOFS TRIQ? Qieghed nara hafna toroq nofshom catti u lixxi u mbghad ftit wara terga terremot

G. Cachia

Sep 23rd 2009, 11:58

The truth is that after some rain traffic jams are being caused by ourselves because we are careful drivers. No one likes to speed up his car on slippy roads because God only knows how many more accidents will happen.

If someone tells me that in the rain he wants to pass from Valley road that means he's asking for trouble. It would be better if they will increase the Wardens and Police in the most important roads like Marsa and Regional Road so when an accident occurs they will promptly put the involved cars aside when possible.

A Galea

Sep 23rd 2009, 10:51

@ Mario Tabone: Then who should we blame, God for the rain? Was it not the PN who promised that will solve the valley road and Msida problems? Thank God we are in 2009!!!

David Thake

Sep 23rd 2009, 10:51

@Keith Davis

Hey Keith, are you old enough to remember when Labour (under Mintoff) had announced that the Msida flooding problem had been solved? I remember Xandir Malta showing an interview with a lady resident saying "Nizzuhajr l-Alla u -Prim Ministru, m'ghandniex aktar ilma" only to be shown haplessly bailing out water from her home with a bucket at the first downpour.

That's not to say that this issue should not be a priority to resolve...

Mario Tabone

Sep 23rd 2009, 10:46

That's it, blame the government !! Anything that seems to happen on these islands is always the governments fault. Msida has been flooding for generations, valley road at Birkirkara the same. Traffic jams are inevitable for the simple reason we have too many cars and because drivers don't observe the highway code which in itself restricts the flow of traffic. We have built on flood plains and valleys and therefore rainwater has nowhere to go.
It might help if we stop complaining and blaming the government and do something about these problems ourselves like car sharing. I know easier said than done !!

mbonello

Sep 23rd 2009, 10:34

@V Galea

I fully agree with you here ... but the authorities should help drivers plan ahead. CCTV cameras should be installed on all artheries or roads with congestions and they should have a live feed on the internet where drivers can check if a road is clogged up or not before they leave home or work. These CCTV cameras should also be monitored by the autorities and a map of Malta is kept updated with red indicators/lines/symbols in problematic areas. These are standard practices abroad and also proposed in the climate change doc published by the MRRA which can be found here: http://www.mrra.gov.mt/htdocs/docs/climatechange_eng.pdf

Search for Recommendation 67 in that doc.

Keith Davis

Sep 23rd 2009, 10:28

One wonders whether we have a government or not!?

Msida and Birkirkara Valley road major flooding - 20 years of nothing !

Vincent Galea

Sep 23rd 2009, 10:09

Plan ahead my dear drivers from where you have to travel....plan ahead.... remember it wasn't raining when Noah built the Ark.

Jurgen Grech

Sep 23rd 2009, 09:19

What a disgrace!!! I have to travel from Zabbar to Madliena every day to work and it takes me 20 minutes in normal conditions, during Summer. In winter, with the added parents taking their children to school, and because of a few millilitres of rain, it takes me more than an hour! When will we start building flyovers and replace roundabouts?? And surely we cannot keep funneling all traffic from south side villages towards Marsa! Something must be done! Tunnels, flyovers and alternative routes asap!

C.Caruana (323)

Sep 23rd 2009, 09:14

Come on, flooding cause of a less than 10mm of rain (so far)! Incredible! One would only guess the situation if one of these offshore thunderstorms had hit Malta.

R Axisa

Sep 23rd 2009, 08:56

Dejjem l-istess! Naqra xita u neghrqu u traffiku galore!