Last week, a horrendous accident was averted in the nick of time. It was around 5pm on a bus stop in Msida. As a bus pulled in to take on passengers, a sizeable throng of some two dozen surged forward and jostled to get aboard.

A handful got on, for the bus was already crowded to the point that passengers were obstructing the driver’s vision, sandwiched as they were between the driver’s seat and the electrically-operated doors.

Without any warning that hewould not be taking on any more passengers, the driver activated theclosing mechanism. The doors swung shut and caught the foot of one of those attempting to board.

With his foot firmly wedged in between the door and the upright post, and unseen by the driver because of the dozen or so passengers obstructing his view, the stranded passenger – with one foot on the bus stop and the other caught in the doors – began frantically banging on the doors and screaming to attract the driver’s attention, just as the vehicle was about to pull out.

What saved the man was not his banging or screaming but the remaining stranded passengers who happened to be in the driver’s line of vision. Had it not been for the other passengers, Malta Public Transport, hard on the heels of the Porte des Bombes tragedy a few days earlier, would have been in the news once again.

What is unnerving about this incident is that the driver, without (what one would have assumed was) the customary “full up” signal, swung the doors shut despite having a severely-degraded field of vision of commuters.

One would have thought the basic training a driver received was to give the “full up” signal before pulling out, especially when being mobbed by those trying to board his bus. Yes, one would have thought...