The report on the recent horrendous tragedy on the sea front in Tower Road, Sliema, attracted 173 comments on timesofmalta.com at the time of writing. It is worrying that there were virtually no expressions of outrage at this obscene event.
We have also just had another incident where a pedestrian on a pavement was hit by a car and instantly killed. Many blog comments were of the hand-wringing variety, with some commentators even feeling sorry for the perpetrator.This is all very nice and charitable but idiotically lop-sided. It typifies our continuing acceptance, at all levels, that such serious road incidents and deaths are inevitable – when they are avoidable. It is also a matter of utter amazement that nobody asked the crucial question: “Why do these things happen?”
Unfortunately Malta remains stuck in a 1950s petrol-headed car-obsessed time warp. This includes our road planners. Transport Malta can only think in terms of smooth motor traffic flow and provision of yet more road and parking space, while omitting the needs of vulnerable road users. So our residential and urban streets continue to be designed as traffic spaces, not people spaces.
It seems as if Transport Malta is happy as long as we can all travel comfortably in cars as fast as we like, as though our collective pants are on fire. Never mind that people occasionally die, they are just a statistic, a fact of life. This attitude is seriously flawed. It is scandalous that Transport Malta gives such priority to cars and omits taking steps to remedy our dangerous traffic situation.
That our judiciary seem to have a soft spot for errant drivers and continues to award derisory penalties for serious contraventions adds to the general feeling that people may drive cars recklessly (and ‘lose control’) with impunity.
In other countries, restraints on motor vehicles are being progressively introduced in response to the increasing threat from traffic and pollution to other road users. These include the legal device of ‘presumption of liability’ and blanket 30 km/h urban limits.
These alone have drastically reduced traffic accidents and deaths. In addition, all kinds of traffic-calming safety devices and modern road designs, such as home zones and shared spaces, are being widely introduced. Why is Malta frightened to introduce such measures?
Had there been decent road design of Tower Road, Sliema, and proper legal protection of vulnerable road users, this unfortunate man might not have met his gruesome death in his beloved Malta. As long as our traffic authorities and judiciary remain complacent about fatal road accidents in urban areas and do nothing, they will continue to have blood on their hands.