Act now to avoid bad accidents

This letter is addressed to the transport authority, the Commissioner of Police, the Sliema local council, the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition.

I have been lobbying to have traffic lights installed in Tower Road, Sliema near the Diplomat Hotel for several years and, unfortunately, my concerns and requests have been totally ignored.

Last Friday, at about 8 p.m. another serious accident happened and I am convinced that if there were traffic lights this young foreign girl would have had a choice either to risk crossing the road as she did on Friday or choose to use the traffic lights.

There are two zebra crossings, one in front of Perry and the other in front of the Diplomat Hotel but, unfortunately, they can hardly be seen and, to top it off, there is quite a long stretch of straight road and drivers tend to drive fast, so the combination is deadly.

I do not know how many more serious and tragic accidents have to happen before traffic lights are installed. I believe that if something can be done to prevent these accidents we would be saving grief to the family of these victims and also saving money for the state in terms of policing and medical care when accidents happen.

By the way, near misses are a daily occurrence.

For starters maybe speed limit and pedestrian crossing signs should be erected.