A drunken driver who had smashed his car into a wall and then plunged onto the rocks at Baħar-iċ-Ċagħaq in November five years ago, killing his 18-year old girlfriend instantly, was ordered to pay €143,000 in compensation to the girl’s heirs.

In making this award, the presiding judge rightly had some harsh words to say about the punishment that was meted out by the Criminal Court, which had previously awarded the driver a €6,600 fine and banned him from driving for a mere three years for the crime of causing death through dangerous driving while drunk and speeding (brake marks at the scene measured 65 metres).

The extraordinary argument put forward by the driver’s lawyer that the dead girl should shoulder responsibility for the accident “because she had decided to go home” with him knowing he had been drinking was rightly excoriated by the judge.

The judges’ summing up encapsulated the core of Malta’s driving problems. “Every day, we experience irresponsible driving on Malta’s roads by people who have no idea of what respect for others is all about. Punishment being meted out by the court is evidently not a strong enough message and the authorities are failing in the enforcement of traffic rules and regulations.”

Irresponsible driving, speeding, lack of courtesy and no respect for other road-users (especially, but not only, motorcyclists and cyclists) and questionable enforcement methods by the police force lie at the heart of Malta’s driving problems – and its high relative accident rate. Successive studies abroad have shown that excessive speed increases traffic accidents, with concomitant increases in the seriousness of injuries and fatalities.

Yet, while some may call for a reduction in speed limits, this is not the answer. Travelling around Malta has become painfully slow as it is without placing more cameras to make the practice more tedious. Road traffic safety means being able to drive safely on the road by eliminating, or at least reducing, the causes of accidents.

It has been shown that the most dangerous roads are those situated in built-up areas. Since in Malta one is very rarely outside a built-up area, that makes speed a sensitive issue.

The issue, however, goes far wider than just speed limits. Safe roads are only truly safe if the drivers on them are safe.

As Mr Justice Anthony Ellul said, Maltese drivers do not drive safely. This is not down to speed alone. It is above all about the quality of our driving. Although the driving test has been made more stringent, there are still too many drivers on the road who should not be there at all.

Courtesy – an essential feature of safe driving – is lacking and those who transgress are allowed to get away with it by traffic police who when they are not being over-aggressive are noteworthy by their absence. Driving on the overtaking lane, refusing to allow cars join traffic from side roads, ignoring Stop or Give Way signs, jumping traffic lights – you name it, and Malta’s drivers have it.

Good road safety in Malta will come about only through a combination of measures. Better roads, stricter and more stringent enforcement and sensible speed limits have an important part to play.

But they cannot provide the final answer. This rests ultimately with all of us as drivers consciously making an effort to drive more safely, with courtesy and respect for others including cyclists and motorcyclists.