Long overdue safe driving campaign

After many years of neglect, one cannot help but notice a positive improvement in our road surfaces as well as some new road projects.

Malta is now screaming out for a Safe Driving Campaign and it is high time that Transport Malta along with the police and all relevant authorities, start an effective campaign based on the Highway Code to educate drivers about how to use and not abuse our roads. This will undoubtedly reduce the number of fatalities and serious accidents on our roads and will not only stop the maiming and the killing, but will also reduce the load on our emergency services as well as the number of beds occupied by emergency admissions at the Mater Dei Hospital.

Special attention should be made to signalling, right of way, especially on roundabouts and at junctions, and to training of motorcyclists and white taxi drivers about road safety especially not to overtake on the inside nor weave between cars. Other drivers cannot be constantly responsible for avoiding motorcyclists/white taxis, the majority of whom seem to think that the rules of the road and speed limits do not apply to them.

One would have thought that this campaign should be held over a period of time, and not here today, gone tomorrow and should include photographs of some of the nasty and shocking accidents that have occurred on our roads, to make sure that the message is driven home. A TV campaign should also be shown simultaneously on all stations thereby ensuring that it reaches as many householders as possible and in the shortest possible time.

Please, please make our roads safer and in years to come we might be able to appease the anti-speed camera lobby and reduce the number of speed cameras, but only when the number of accidents decreases to an acceptable level and on a permanent basis!