Traffic accidents waiting to happen

Emanuel L. Vella expressed his concern about people walking in the middle of the streets (October 7). Many will share his concern but may I add that, sometimes, it’s just bad habits.

We now have a number of good pavements and our thanks go to Minister George Pullicino and his ministry for the work being done in Sliema and elsewhere.

But what’s the use of having good pavements if these are blocked with one thing or another, some mentioned by Mr Vella, and, worse still, if we have some streets that have parking bays partially on pavements and this with the blessing of the council or vehicles parked on them simply because the drivers can’t find any space anywhere? Vehicles, especially heavy ones, are sometimes partially driven on pavements!

There is another problem: pigeons. People are forced to walk in the middle of the road to avoid pigeon droppings. It’s incredible how people can live with filthy house façades, pavements and droppings on parked cars. All with the consequent damage.

In his second paragraph he states that “no traffic accident is wilful, otherwise it would not be an accident!” The trouble is that anything that happens is called an accident, when often it is not accidental at all.

How can one justify seeing people who should know better completely ignoring traffic signs as if they are not there or are there as some sort of decoration? And what about driving and chatting on the mobile phone? These are quite common occurrences!