Żejtun road ‘still deadly’

A year after losing their daughter and three-year-old grandchild in a traffic accident in Żejtun, Rita and Charlie D’Anastasi feel the road where their dear ones died is still dangerous for both drivers and pedestrians.

“The road, Anton Buttigieg Street, is still not safe. Since the accident, it remained the same except for a few lines painted on the ground and pelican lights being installed. They are not enough to stop people from speeding and overtaking – the main causes of accidents,” Mr D’Anastasi said.

He and his wife called on the authorities to introduce speed bumps and centre strips, which could have avoided the accident that orphaned their five-year-old grandson, Lynill.

Lynill’s younger sister, Kelsey, and their parents, Jonathan Seychell and Roxana D’Anastasi, both 20, died when the car they were in collided with a bowser driving in the opposite direction and was smashed against a wall.

The road claimed the lives of six people over the past decade.

A few months after the accident, Transport Malta installed road markings and pelican lights. But the D’Anastasis, who live close to the busy road, maintain that the speeding continues.

The deceased couple had been together for eight years and were planning to get married. Their son still speaks about his family and puts toys aside for his little sister to play with.

When five-year-old Lynill found a small girly teddy bear in a gift ball, given to him by his grandmother, he told her he wanted to place the doll-like toy on his little sister’s grave.

“My eyes started welling up when he said that. He knows what happened. That his parents and sister died in a traffic accident... He still mentions them,” his grandmother, Rita D’Anastasi, said with tears in her eyes.

“We still have some of his sister’s toys. He doesn’t play with them because he says they belong to his sister and aren’t his,” she added.

Lynill’s three-year-old sister, Kelsey, and their parents, Jonathan Seychell and Roxana D’Anastasi, died in a collision that shocked their hometown a year ago today.

The accident happened at about 5 p.m. when the couple, both 20, and their daughter were in a black Toyota Starlet on their way to run some errands.

Lynill was at his paternal grandparents’ house when the rest of his family were driving along Anton Buttigieg Street in Żejtun, headed towards Marsascala.

Mr Seychell, who was at the wheel, overtook two cars and found himself facing a bowser coming from the opposite direction. The car got caught under the front of the bowser and was smashed against a wall that is still demolished.

Three hours later, the lifeless bodies of the three family members were recovered from the wreck.

Thinking back to that fatal evening, Charlie and Rita D’Anastasi recalled how their daughter had told them she would not be late. They sat around their kitchen table while Lynill, who lives with them most of the time, was sent to play in another room to ensure he did not listen to his grandparents’ painful memories.

He occasionally walked into the kitchen to play with Buren, a pet Pug his mother had bought a few months before she died.

“On the day of the accident, at about 5 p.m., my wife asked me if I had heard the crash on the main road situated round the corner from our house. I hadn’t heard anything but my wife went there to see what happened,” Mr D’Anastasi said.

His wife added: “I went there and saw the wreck. But I didn’t recognise the car. You couldn’t make out what car it was. So I went back home.”

As time passed and their daughter did not return home, the couple tried calling on her mobile phone but no one answered.

“I called Jonathan’s mother, since Lynill was there, and thought they may have gone there for supper. My wife started sensing something might be wrong,” Mr D’Anastasi recalled.

“But they were nowhere to be found. Then, later on, we were watching the news and recognised the car. Soon after we ran outside and found the police about to knock at our door...We asked if they were alive,” he said without continuing the sentence.

Jonathan and Roxana had been together for almost eight years and met in the village square when they were just 12 years old. They planned to get married within two years and had set the wedding date for May 14, 2011.

The accident turned the spotlight on the dangerous state of the road that claimed the life of six people over the past decade.

Żejtun mayor Joe Attard had explained that, since 1996, the council had been asking the transport authority to take action to make the road safer. He said plans had been on paper for a year.

Labour MP Helena Dalli tabled a motion in Parliament last September calling for an inquiry to establish why planned road safety measures along the Żejtun road were not implemented. The motion was defeated with 35 votes to 34.

That same month, the Transport Ministry said that, by the end of the year, improved road signs and pelican lights would be installed along Anton Buttigieg Street to control speeding traffic there. The works were to also include centre strips and small traffic islands.

The pelican lights and road markings have been installed but the D’Anastasis feel this is not enough as cars still sped along the road.

Żejtun deputy mayor Joan Agius said the council wished to see more traffic calming measures implemented, such as speed bumps. She added that, on September 25, folk singers would be chanting the story of the family’s tragedy during a Żejtun cultural evening.

A Mass to mark the first anniversary since the accident will be held today at the Żejtun parish church at 6.30 p.m.