Malta lacks a consistent and professional road safety campaign to address the increasing number of traffic fatalities, according to a study just published in the Malta Medical Journal.

The study also highlights the lack of detailed data on the dynamics of the accidents, which could support education and safety campaigns, especially since the majority of victims were pedestrians and motorcyclists.

Of the 18 road fatalities registered so far this year, nine were pedestrians and six were motorcyclists.

The current status...is already worse at this early stage in 2022, with an alarming rise in fatal accidents- Study authors

“Data regarding vulnerable road users are worrying, especially for pedestrians, who are the most vulnerable,” the authors say.

“Unfortunately, available data provide no further clues as to the possible causes of accidents involving vulnerable subgroups.”

They say it is important that the dynamics of each accident, along with the location, are recorded in more detail so that patterns can be highlighted.

This would allow improvements to be made in terms of engineering, education or enforcement.

The economic impact of road accidents is calculated by the World Health Organisation to be in the region of 1.5 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product

Titled ‘Sharp increase in traffic fatalities in first quarter of 2022 in Malta’, authors Tonio Piscopo, Jeremy Borg Myatt and Victor Grech highlighted that the 2022 fatalities disrupted the downward trend of road deaths.

They questioned whether enough was being done to reach the objectives laid out in Malta’s Road Safety Strategy.

The strategy, published in 2014, set a target to decrease fatalities by 50 per cent over a 10-year period. In 2014, there were 10 fatalities. So far this year,  there have been 18, the latest victim a young woman hit by a bus on Mdina Road on Wednesday.

'Education, engineering, enforcement'

Times of Malta reported earlier this week that the mid-year figure of 15 was the highest such figure in a quarter of a century.

“The pillars of good road safety as outlined in the same document are education, engineering and enforcement and the targets in the document were based on improving all three,” the research says.

“The current status, however, is the same as the one observed in 2014 and, in fact, is already worse at this early stage in 2022, with an alarming rise in fatal accidents.”

The authors note visible progress in the condition of Malta’s major roads, with improvements in road engineering that have raised local standards.

“However, much remains to be done. Efforts to educate the public by the Road Safety Council and miscellaneous NGOs have also been registered, although a publicly funded, consistent and professionally orchestrated educational campaign is lacking.”

It said enforcement was a harder nut to crack and more difficult to analyse.

The researchers cited statistics about road traffic accidents from the National Statistics Office and local media reports.

The figures showed that the 10 fatalities of 2014 increased to 22 by 2016.

The number then declined gradually to 19 in 2017, 18 in 2018, 16 in 2019, 12 in 2020 and nine in 2021.

The study noted the impact of the pandemic on road usage in 2020 and 2021. But, by the end of the first quarter of 2022, there were already 10 road fatalities. 

“This already greatly exceeds the expected value for all of 2022 which is 7.2 total deaths based on previous annual trends,” the researchers wrote.

 €200 million economic impact

They also note that grievous injuries often necessitate frequent visits and admissions to hospital, time lost from work leading to loss of income and loss of bodily function with restriction in quality of life.

The economic impact of road accidents is calculated by the World Health Organisation to be in the region of 1.5 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in middle income countries. For Malta this would translate to a cost of just under €200 million per annum, the researchers said.

Analysis of data collected from 2018 regarding fatalities in the whole vulnerable cohort – pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists – indicated that these constituted 69 per cent of the total.

Several hit-and-run accidents were also recorded since 2017, 47 involving pedestrians and three involving cyclists, the researchers found.