Labour MP Helena Dalli called for an inquiry to examine all documentation relating to the works which had been approved to ensure road safety in Anton Buttigieg Road, Żejtun, claiming they had never been carried out because of negligence by the Transport Authority or the Transport Ministry.

She was concluding the debate on a motion, which was defeated by 34 votes for and 35 against, which called on the government to say why the approved project had not been carried out, to establish who had held up the project, and establish deadlines within which the upgrading would be started and completed.

Introducing the motion, Dr Dalli said the government could not shirk its responsibility of providing safe roads and shift it onto drivers. The minister had abdicated from his responsibility to implement road safety measures on this road.

She said the opposition had raised its concerns on Anton Buttigieg Street in Żejtun even before the last tragic accident last August, when two 20-year-olds and their three-year-old daughter died there.

In the seven months it had taken for the motion to come up for debate in the House, the measures which experts had indicated to be the most important had not yet been installed.

Charlò Bonnici (PN) said prudent driving was not a characteristic of the Maltese. In the 1990s, the then Public Transport Authority (ADT) had embarked on various educational campaigns, most notably a TV campaign focusing on seating children at the back of a vehicle. It had been effective and had managed to bring about a change in mentality.

He referred to the installation of a number of speed cameras on Malta's roads as one of the measures through which accidents were prevented. Mr Bonnici said that preventive measures had also been proposed through amendments in criminal laws and regulations which proposed an increase in fines.

Frans Agius (PN) started with a comparison of fatal accidents recorded on major roads: 11 on the Coast Road, 11 at Ċirkewwa, seven on the Rabat road, and six each on the Regional Road, St Andrew's Road and Anton Buttigieg Road. This in no way reduced the need to do as much as possible to save lives on any road.

He gave a breakdown of major roads that were being worked on, how most of the costs were being footed by EU funds and their proposed dates of completion. The first phase of six roads in different parts of Malta, to be completed by 2011, included the Marsascala Bypass, Valletta Road at Żurrieq, the proposed flypass at Kappara and Salini Road.

Dr Agius said the government was committed to safer roads. Specifically in Anton Buttigieg Road, parking bays, signals and four sets of traffic lights had already been installed, but there was still no centre strip to stop drivers overtaking and going on the wrong side of the road at excessive speed.

A 10-year study on American roads between 1995 and 2005 showed that reduction of the speed limit along with the introduction of speed cameras had immediately reduced speed and saved lives, reducing consumption of fuel and the cost of motor vehicle crashes.

Concluding, Dr Agius said it was wrong to blame only drivers, because certain roads actually invited reckless driving, especially when they were badly designed. Long straight stretches also made for serious incidents.

Labour MP Charles Buhagiar said it was disquieting to note the number of fatal and maiming road accidents over the years, especially when one realised that the greatest solution was driver education. Very importantly, the ADT had failed badly when it had not done what it had planned with continuous educational programmes.

It did not help to reduce fatal or serious traffic accidents when new roads were constructed without taking the trouble to remove dangerous corners or bends at the design stage.

One very important aspect in any new major road should be the installation of a centre strip. Not enough care was being taken for safety in the design of new roads.

Any driver who knew where speed cameras were located simply slowed down just before getting there and then sped back up. There were other methods of traffic control today, especially on straight roads.

The Malta Highway Code laid down two speed limits, one for urban and one for rural traffic.

But drivers today had to remember different speed limits on the approach to different speed cameras.

Road signage and its upkeep were very important when it came to the safety of driver, passengers and vehicle. There were too many arterial roads where the double lines in the centre were invisible.

A major problem in road fatalities was the danger to pedestrians. Some major roads were literally crossing villages, but nothing was being done to make them safer for pedestrians. December 13 Road in Marsa had two foot bridges, but in spite of years of official promises there were still none on other such major roads. To take one example, a footbridge over Mrieħel Bypass had been promised ever since 2005 and was still not there.

The motion under debate referred to the years since the Żejtun local council had asked the government to concentrate on Anton Buttigieg Road, but nothing had been done until three lives were lost in a single accident. The government had a central role to play in safety on such roads; it was not enough to harp on driver education.

Mr Buhagiar said things had been allowed to get worse until people died.

In the case of St Anne Street in Floriana, the infrastructure was there in the form of two pedestrian subways, but people refused to use them because of the state they were in. The local council had been asking the government for years to upgrade them, and even offered to do the job itself, but the government had not allowed it.

Another black spot in Floriana was on the downhill to Portes des Bombes, where Transport Malta had taken no action to redress the dangerous curve.

He disagreed with the separation of responsibilities between government and local councils for major roads. Although some roads were located in villages, they had become arterial or distributory, such as Żabbar Road in Fgura, The Strand in Sliema and Anton Buttigieg Road in Żejtun. Attard was another case in point, with permanent gridlock on a road that was not designed for heavy traffic.

Another looming major problem was how heavy traffic would drive into Valletta when Pope Pius V Street over City Gate was lost. Up to 50,000 vehicles a day would have to pass though narrow residential streets such as St Mark and then leave Valletta up Old Bakery Street, with the inevitable increase in emissions. Such issues must be looked at much more closely.

Mr Buhagiar also spoke about the problem of horses holding up traffic behind them. There was a law against this, but nobody took any notice. Horses on roads should be transported in boxes in order to reduce congestion and potential incidents.

Concluding, he said laws alone without enforcement would be ineffective. Legislators should look well on the recently-announced higher fines. The infrastructure should include making roads safer for both drivers and pedestrians.

Justice Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici said one had to send the message that excessive speeding was wrong and not needed in a small island such as Malta.

Drivers had to be more attentive and disciplined. Fines should be heavier according to the seriousness of the offence. He called on local councils and authorities to deploy traffic wardens and to install speed cameras in areas where traffic regulations were notoriously not observed. The government would introduce a Bill increasing fines for talking on mobile phones or sending text messages or similar offences while driving.

It was not easy for local councils to prioritise their spending towards deployment of more traffic wardens and traffic-calming measures.

Transport Minister Austin Gatt said NSO statistics indicated that in 2009 there were 1,069 accidents compared to the 1,312 in 2002. Despite the decrease in slight and grievous accidents, fatalities had increased. Malta had the most cars per kilometre of road, and it was one of the countries with the least accidents within the EU.

He said that the Żejtun local council was correct to identify the main causes of traffic accidents in Anton Buttigieg Road as being overtaking and excessive speed, and these were the major reasons on a national level.

He agreed that emphasis must be placed on education, road design and the implementation of preventive measures.

Road designs were not necessarily of the best, but the minister could not disregard the advice of road experts. He had sought a review of the speed policy and that the experts' advice was followed. He clarified that while the Highway Code established maximum speeds for urban and rural areas, the code also provided the authority with some discretion.

A scientific schedule indicated that the urban road speed limit of 50 km/hr carried a zero per cent relative risk of having an accident, but when one drove through an urban road at 80km/hr, the relative risk of having an accident increased to 34 per cent.

He referred to the last two fatalities that occurred in Anton Buttigieg Street in the past 10 years and said that while in the first accident the driver had had a clear vision of 320 metres, in the second accident the driver at the point of accident had a clear vision of 400 metres.

Minister Gatt said that experts had indicated that this road ought not to have centre strips, because these were to be used in roads for higher speeds. In a road with long clear vision it was the driver who must control himself, and road design must not address the exceptions but must abide with the demands of road design.

Questions on who carried the responsibility for the placement of pelican lights and pedestrian crossings were of secondary importance, even if Anton Buttigieg Street had been designated by Mepa as an urban road and therefore responsibility rested on the local council.

This road did not allow for excessive speeds and did not allow overtaking by making use of that lane which was for oncoming traffic. He said pelican lights and pedestrian crossings would not prevent overtaking that necessitated the facing of oncoming traffic, and would only provide a higher risk to road users.

Dr Gatt stressed that although Malta was to see a new bus fleet by the end of the year, the challenge was to encourage people to make less use of private cars and make better use of public transport.

Traffic accidents could not be decreased only through mechanical measures but also through decreasing the number of cars on the road, he concluded.

Winding up the debate Dr Dalli said the minister had accused the opposition of bickering on the matter because it was highlighting negligence.

Minister Austin Gatt had boasted that experts were designing better roads, but 2009 had seen the highest increase in fatal road accidents because of overtaking and excessive speeding.

She criticised the minister for mentioning only the clear line of vision in the Żejtun road but failing to mention the perceived risks pointed out by experts. She quoted from public documents that it was the experts' opinion that risk was reduced if centre strips were built. Centre strips were critical in that road because of the high risk of overtaking.

Dr Dalli said that in April 2009 the ADT and its experts had approved the plans for centre strips in that road, but the necessary works had not started and the local council had been presented with the plans in August after the latest fatal accident.

The Transport Authority had embarked on a number of road safety projects under former Transport Minister Jesmond Mugliett, but all this had stopped when minister Gatt was given this portfolio. The minister was now confirming the importance of these projects.

She read extensively from correspondence between the Żejtun local council, the ADT and the ministry on the matter from 2007 to date. The ADT had agreed to address the issue of traffic management and both sides had agreed to the designs and plans for centre strips, pelican lights, road markings and signage.

She said the Transport Authority was riddled with inefficiency and certain people were given promotions and technical responsibilities when they were under-qualified or had no qualifications for the job. Others were not chosen because they were told that they were over-qualified. ADT correspondence showed that previous ADT boards had ignored advice not to employ incompetent field officers. There were clerks who had been appointed field officers without even sitting for a written examination because they were semi-literate. These persons had been appointed because of political patronage.

It was therefore not fair for taxpayers to pay for mediocrity and inefficiency within the government, concluded Dr Dalli.