The police are expected to charge four people in connection with the incident last month when a trailer carrying an excavator crashed into a bridge at Aldo Moro Road, Marsa, causing traffic chaos.

The trailer was unlicensed and uninsured.

Transport Malta confirmed the road licence of the trailer, technically known as a tractor unit, had expired in August 2006 and had not been renewed. As a result, the vehicle was also uninsured.

The truck rammed the footbridge on April 23 at about 12.45 p.m., causing chaos to traffic in the main thoroughfares of Marsa and surrounding towns and even leading to some flights being delayed when air crew got stuck in the tailback. Some Matsec exams also had to be postponed.

The transport watchdog passed on information in its possession on the vehicle's licence to the police, "who have the power to prosecute the driver for a number of violations".

Transport Malta will be imposing an administrative fine of €2 on the vehicle's owner for every day he failed to renew the trailer's road licence since 2006.

Police sources confirmed that four people, including three from Gozo, were being investigated and were likely to be arraigned. They are believed to be the owner, the driver and two people who loaded the excavator onto the trailer. Besides charges relating to the unpaid licence and insurance, they are expected to be charged with negligence and causing damage to public property.

The charges have not yet been filed because the inquiry by Magistrate Edwina Grima is still open.

Works to repair the damage to the footbridge will be carried out over the coming weeks, a spokesman for Transport Malta said, but there is still no estimate of how much it will cost to fix the bridge.

More stories from The Times in the News section.