Drivers involved in collisions should be automatically breathalysed and have their call logs checked to cut down on accidents caused by alcohol or mobile phone use, according to a surgeon dealing with the consequences.

John Casaletto, an orthopaedic surgeon at Mater Dei Hospital, told The Sunday Times of Malta the emphasis on fatality figures was obscuring the real impact of road accidents, with some 50 serious injuries for every person who dies.

“When I returned from working in the UK, I was shocked at how many accidents I was seeing,” Mr Casaletto said. “It’s on a completely different level of magnitude to what I saw there.

“People need to be made aware of the injuries they can sustain. Not everything can be fixed. Even if you survive, the injuries can shatter your career and your life.

“A leg fracture can easily take nine months to a year to heal, and that’s with a lot of surgery. Neurological injuries or bad fractures can ruin your life at a very young age. Then there’s long-term pain, which people don’t consider.”

Mr Casaletto described one accident he dealt with last year, where the five occupants of the car each suffered five “really bad, high-energy fractures” requiring several surgical procedures.

“Our body is not designed to withstand a collision at those speeds,” he said. “If you’re going at 80mph and you hit a wall, the energy in that collision goes right into the fracture and explodes the bone. The damage is incredible. Sometimes you can’t put them back together as well as you’d like.”

According to NSO figures, 467 people were injured in traffic accidents in the first three months of the year, 29 per cent more than the same period last year. Four people were killed in the same time period.

Just yesterday, a 72-year-old man suffered grievous injuries following a traffic accident in Ħamrun, while another man was hit by a car in Birkirkara. His condition was not known by the time of going to print.

Mr Casaletto said that during the summer months, trauma surgeons typically see a threefold increase in their work, largely due to traffic accidents.

An increase in people using their phones while driving and a generally lax attitude towards drink-driving, he said, was partly to blame for the spike in accidents.

“In the UK, you can check phone logs immediately to see if someone was texting just before an accident,” Mr Casaletto said.

“There’s a lot of talk about fines but you also need more enforcement, and this can easily be done. If you’re texting, you’re basically driving blind. That can lead you to veer out of your lane into a head-on collision, which is a whole different class.”

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat announced this week that he had ordered a review of traffic fines, particularly with regard to drink-driving, because of a surge in traffic accidents.

“Drink-driving is an irresponsible act which costs lives, and the authorities should consider being draconian in this sector,” Dr Muscat said.

The lowest fine for drink-driving in Malta is currently €1,200 – already among the highest penalties in Europe.

Mr Casaletto said the authorities should go further and consider automatic breathalyser tests for anyone involved in a collision, even if there is no immediate suspicion that the driver is under the influence. This, he suggested, would cut down on cases where drunk drivers cannot be prosecuted because the proper forensic evidence was not collected.

Texting and driving

A 30-minute exercise carried out by the Times of Malta last week and published online exposed numerous cases of drivers blatantly flouting the law by using their mobile phones, putting themselves and others at risk.

Such offences are still being committed despite official data showing that each month an average of 2,000 motorists are being fined €100 for using their mobile phone while driving.

Transport Malta has also set up digital notices at several roadside locations reminding people of the risks.

Official figures across the world in recent years have shown that mobile phones now pose the biggest accident risk to drivers, much higher than drink-driving.

Inspector Sandro Camilleri, president of the Police Officers Union, said in some cases offenders did not limit themselves to making calls while driving, but were also taking bigger risks by sending texts or using Facebook while at the wheel.

Drink-driving – random checks?

Calls for the police to institute random checks to identify drunk drivers have been mooted regularly over the years by Sedqa and the Malta Insurers Association, among others.

Currently, the police need to have a reasonable suspicion that a driver is inebriated before carrying out a breathalyser test.

Sedqa has also called for the alcohol limit to be lowered from 0.8 mg to 0.5 mg – an amount that is equivalent to one small beer, one tot of spirit or one small glass of wine – as is the case in some other European countries.

Eurostat figures have shown that only a small percentage of Maltese people (eight per cent in 2010) are aware of the legal limit.

Answering questions last December, however, then Police Commissioner Michael Cassar rejected the calls for random checks.

“Apart from not being viable, it would be unthinkable for us to subject everyone to a test in the hopes of catching a few people,” he said. “Our aim is to make our roads safer, but not to oppress people.”

That same month, the police took possession of 15 new breathalyser kits, which the Commissioner said would allow more tests to be carried out in a shorter amount of time by providing conclusive results on site.

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