It was to be expected than an inquiry would be launched into the tragic incident last Sunday which left 28 people injured after a Porsche supercar careered off a makeshift track and into an unsuspecting crowd of spectators.
Shockingly graphic footage shows at least three individuals being tossed into the air like “rag dolls”, as one report described the scene, while a six-year-old girl and her mother sustained potentially life-changing injuries. One man is still fighting for his life in intensive care after becoming wedged between two vehicles as he landed.
Carnage is often an overused term, but the blood, screams, physical damage and chaos in this case seem to make it a cruelly apt description. The injured and their families are rightly searching for answers, as are the rest of us.
The first question – what went wrong? – has a worryingly simplistic answer: the driver lost control of the car. Why and how is for the inquiry to determine, but the fact he was not wearing any form of protective equipment, not even a crash helmet, while manoeuvring a highly-powered car is in itself a cause for concern.
Had a spinning car been the only incident, that would more or less have been the end of the story. But, unfortunately, many other people were involved, either directly or indirectly, so the story for them will not be ending any time soon.
Nor should it. When an event is held that involves other people, whoever is responsible for that event owes a duty of care of some kind or another. So the first thing that needs to be established in this case is who, actually, was responsible for the event?
We know that the Office of the President was the organiser. But who is that, precisely? It seems preposterous to suggest it is the President herself, no more than any other head of state is responsible for national events. However, someone, or some people, were designated as the organisers and their identity needs to be established.
When that first step is complete, there are several questions that need to be put: first and foremost is, are there any reasonable steps that could have been taken to prevent such an incident?
More pertinently, one needs to ask whether the crowd could have watched from a safer distance. And, if that was not possible, whether they could have been offered better protection. What separated them from the track was clearly inadequate. One might also question whether the airport is a suitable location for such an event in the first place, though admittedly in Malta there are very few locations to choose from; and did anyone or any authority establish or monitor safety requirements?
What should be of no consequence is the good intentions of those behind what, after all, is designed to be an event to raise money for a worthy cause; nor that it has been organised many times before without incident. That said, there should be no scapegoats.
However, aside from the horrific injuries that people suffered and the trauma they will endure for years to come, there is another question that refuses to go away:
Why was practically everyone, with the exception of the President who displayed genuine emotion, so shockingly silent in the immediate aftermath of this terrible incident – from the people associated with the event to those who may have been in an position to comment?
Is it because we live in tiny Malta, where everyone knows everyone? If so, that may be the biggest tragedy of all.