The government did not care about the safety of pedestrians, the Labour Party said yesterday, expressing disbelief at the dismissal of a request for a footbridge spanning the Mrieħel bypass.

Transport Malta has dropped plans to erect the footbridge, deeming it unfeasible. A study it carried out showed that only an average of 42 people crossed the road in a week.

PL spokesman Charles Buhagiar said such reasoning was unacceptable “and, frankly, irrational”. He noted that three people died crossing the road there.

He also noted that the government had voted against a motion moved by the opposition in Parliament for safety measures to be installed in Anton Buttigieg Street in Żejtun, where a number of serious accidents had taken place, including a collision that claimed the lives of a family of three a year ago.

Emma Marie Housley, 17, and Graziella Fenech, 13, died after they were run over on the Mrieħel bypass five years ago. Jonathan Seychell and Roxana D’Anastasi, 20, and their three-year-old daughter, Kelsey, died in a collision with a water bowser in Żejtun.

In reply to Mr Buhagiar’s comments, the Infrastructure Ministry said it was the duty of those who spent public funds to do so carefully and in proportion to the problem being addressed.

The ministry noted that building a bridge across a street was not cheap.

With reference to Anton Buttigieg Street, Żejtun, it said Transport Malta had taken all the necessary safety measures despite the road falling under the responsibility of the local council, to whom Mr Buhagiar should have addressed his criticism.