A community of around 300 residents separated from Qormi’s centre by the Mrieħel bypass has still not been provided with safe means to cross the busy artery five years after two girls were run over.

On the fifth anniversary of the death of Emma Marie Housley, 17, and Graziella Fenech, 13, Qormi mayor Jesmond Aquilina and other councillors reiterated their appeal for the government to build an overhead pass on the Mrieħel bypass.

When the road was built some 20 years ago, the Tal-Blata housing estate was divided in two and residents on the industrial estate side of the bypass were cut off from the locality’s centre.

The area is not even serviced by public transport and children are required to cross the main artery to attend various activities in Qormi.

The overhead pass has long been promised by the government but in the most recent parliamentary reply given by Roads Minister Austin Gatt last year, he said the project would be undertaken “when funds are allocated to the Transport Authority and depending on established priorities”.

In December last year Ivan Cutajar, 28, from Tarxien was sentenced to two years in prison suspended for four years and fined €4,000 for causing the death of the two girls.