On March 20, The Times announced that Malta Has Safest Roads In EU and that Malta’s Death Rate Cut By Half, according to latest EU statistics.

It makes me wonder who conducts these studies and where do the facts come from.

There is only one reason that 2012 was a year of fewer deaths and this was that many of Malta’s main roads were under construction and, for this reason, gridlocked. Driving speeds were manifestly reduced while travelling times were greatly increased.

It is true that speed kills and, going by 2012 statistics, if we decided to set the national speed limit at 40kph most accidents would not involve fatalities even if pedestrians were the victims.

However, a sensible balance must be found, that is, weighing travelling times against the risk of accident (99 per cent of which are not ‘accidents’ but, rather, the result of carelessness).

Maltese roads are an EU laughing stock but the politicians are proud of silly headlines such as the one mentioned earlier.

Only a few days ago, it was said that Maltese roads were even worse than Malawi’s. This is a case of more ‘lies, damned lies and statistics’ distorting anything truthful if that can prove a political point or if it contributes to the cause of ‘one upmanship’.