Ever-hungry Death is bent on following a horribly varied diet these days. It includes much youthful fare than usual. Death gobbled up multiple youthful life in the early hours of Saturday on the Ta' Srina Road, not long after taking that of a young motorcyclist traversing the Attard-Mtarfa bypass and soon after the snatching away of two young girls on the Qormi-Mriehel bypass.
The simultaneous death of five boys deepened the heartbreak that had gripped the nation with the Qormi tragedy and prior to that after various firework factories blew up. The end of life always generates sadness, despite the certainty that life must end. When it does so tragically, the grief of those who suffer the loss cannot begin to be described.
The reaction to the traffic accidents has also triggered comment and speculation, some of which had a bizarre quality that cannot be explained away by profound shock at the heartlessness of Death when it has its final way out of season.
Six deaths on two of the roads so recently re-opened after they were rebuilt under the Fifth Italian financial protocol were rapidly correlated by tongues that wag too quickly and loosely, to the quality of those roads. Such comments paralleled the usual speculation regarding the speed at which the drivers in question were driving.
The latter factor invariably arouses strong interest. Just as invariably it should be left to the traffic experts to determine such facts as can be established. Idle talk does not help the relatives of those who lose their life. It aggravates their anguish. The factor of the reconstructed roads has a particularly bitter Maltese flavour. One that should not really be part of the menu pulled out by Death.
Whilst not saying anything that merely worsens the state of mind and emotions of those who suffer the loss of their loved ones, or hastily apportioning blame, there is no question that the issue of safety on our roads has to become a main discussion and education item.
Even without the sharp spur of awful traffic accidents that have occurred, we clearly must focus a great deal more to see the issue in its total gravity, to which so many drivers, some pedestrians, and the authorities contribute.
Too many drivers disregard traffic regulations, particularly through over-speeding, including within villages and towns. Not enough pedestrians follow the correct road code. And the authorities have yet to prioritise prevention.
The reconstructed roads are not unsafe because parts of some of them are single-lane - and not two - in each direction. Single lanes - provided that drivers act sensibly and according to traffic regulations - should calm traffic and increase safety. The roads are a threat to safety only in the sense that drivers who do not feel bound by speed limits and other traffic regulations feel more reckless than usual.
It should not take terrible traffic accidents and the sight of greedy Death gorging itself to heighten the need for a serious traffic control policy, paralleled by a strong and ongoing traffic education policy. Speed limits should be uniform and clearly displayed. They should be followed, in the first instance, by all those who drive or are driven in a government car.
A programme of traffic calming initiatives should be drawn up and implemented. (Mepa's draft local plan includes recommendations which remain disregarded.) The use of speed cameras should spread. They could become a stronger deterrent if the names of those caught breaking the rules on them are published. Traffic wardens should be deployed on preventive duties too and not just on issuing tickets.
In addition, the police mobile squad should be strengthened so that more of it can be deployed on traffic monitoring duties.
Society at large, too, cannot wait for voracious Death to startle it into serious reflection. Drivers and pedestrians, parents and partners, youths and children should develop and project a consciousness of sensible road behaviour.
Death is always hungry. We should at least do our best to try not to let it feast earlier than it must.