Observance of the regulations and prudence while driving are, without doubt, important factors in reducing the number and severity of accidents. Unfortunately, the character trait of each driver varies, and with them varies also the degree to which regulations are observed. Rarely would one find a driver who obsessively and invariably follows the rules.
Distractions can be a cause; ignorance of the rules another. Efforts should be made to identify those drivers who systematically ignore even basic road etiquette. Some drivers may be downright criminal and sociopaths. These should be identified by establishing a set of criteria and punitive measures taken.
The mechanical condition and age of the vehicle may be an important factor contributing to a road accident. Easily visible markers that can be evaluated at the scene of the accident are tyre thread and side wall condition, and disc brake and brake pads' condition.
The general condition of the vehicle should also give clues to the owner's care and handling of the vehicle and its maintenance. Steering play or wobbly wheels and hydraulic fluid levels give other clues.
If the official at the scene notes enough signs, which indicate that a vehicle is in a poor state of maintenance, that official can order the vehicle be taken away for a more thorough vehicle survey by more technically qualified persons. This will not only serve to collect more specific data but also reveals any standard maintenance omissions by the owner and abuse of VRT.
There is no doubt that, even if impeccably maintained, older vehicles with older technology have an inherent disadvantage. They have less efficient braking, suspension and tyre profiles and less chassis rigidity. These increase the likelihood of inappropriate handling, in spite of acceptable speeds.
Time of day or night, and the relationship with the driver's immediate activities (shift work, night out or lack of sleep), may have an important bearing on the cause of an accident. Sunlight direction, windscreen clarity and the weather conditions prevailing are to be given due attention. Very strong winds and their direction may have contributed to the accident.
Road condition
After driver inexperience or inattention, excessive speed and vehicle condition, I would say that the fourth most important cause of accidents is the state of the road. There is no way that the authorities will admit to this in the short term.
There is no way that the official personnel arriving at the scene of an accident can be relied on to give an objective, impartial assessment of the state of the road in the 50 or 100 metres behind the vehicles involved and especially that segment of road with brake marks (modern electronically controlled braking with ABS and traction control may not leave brake marks).
It is up to the persons involved in the accident to examine and point out the deficiencies in the road surface, which in their opinion have contributed to the accident. The official present at the scene should still fill out his assessment of the road condition - namely, the regularity of the surface, its quality, camber and water retention characteristics, and the presence of loose gravel and slimy mud.
Large potholes could cause drivers to take sudden erratic avoidance manoeuvres without having any time to look out for other vehicles in close proximity. These large holes could be the cause of damage to tyres, wheel rims, suspension and wheel alignment, which could later, even much later, contribute to an accident.
Children on the streets can cause an accident with injury to themselves or third parties if they provoke a sudden avoidance manoeuvre. If the child is too young to be unaccompanied on the street, the parents should be liable as they have the responsibility to determine if the child is old enough to be left alone on the streets.
On the other hand, older children, because of a 'reckless' teenager disposition, lack education on road use or their ignorance may cause them to be held personally liable to have contributed to an accident or their own injury or that of third parties.
There seems to be a universal lack of awareness of the dangers of normal flowing traffic by the more senior and not so senior citizens, especially so by those who do not have driving experience. Pedestrians plodding along on the carriageway, even on the outer side of parked cars, are a common site in Maltese towns and villages.
There commonly seems to be disregard at choosing a safe spot to cross the road in the absence of pedestrian crossings or an underpasses. Educational campaigns for pedestrians are practically inexistent. Without some statistics or studies there is really no way to make a targeted educational campaign.
I have to date never seen or heard of a case in which traffic wardens or the police have stopped a pedestrian and pointed out that he/she has carried out a dangerous action. If these have been done, they should also be assimilated in databases.
Animals on the road, not just stray cats and dogs, but also horse-drawn vehicles and other animals with a rider, can potentially cause accidents with injury or damage to third parties. All horses should be electronically tagged and their drivers should have a certificate of proficiency in handling the animal if they intend to take the animal on the road.
Animals with riders or animal-drawn vehicles should be completely outlawed from using major roadways where the speed limit is higher than 50 km/h.
Data collection aim
The aim of all this data collection is to identify the more important factors leading to road traffic accidents, the causes leading to human casualties in particular but also to quantify the damage caused to vehicles and other property and the costs involved.
Once the factors are identified, strategies can be planned and implemented where and when possible to reduce the number and severity of road accidents. Many of the factors outlined here can be put down to disregard to advice laid down in the Highway Code.
Road accident data accessible to the public or to researchers is limited to the quarterly report released by the National Statistics Office and, more recently, from the ADT (Malta Transport Authority) Website. Over the past 10 years, data in NSO releases was not consistent.
Some data was rather useless while useful data cropped up in one release and disappeared in the next. Most of the data looks like a scoreboard for a turkey shoot. In the circumstances, the NSO did not do a bad job. The NSO collects basic, raw traffic data.
Unless the NSO receives specific requests from the people who should be involved in collecting and analysing what is happening on Maltese roads, the quarterly releases will remain simply a partial documentation of the times. The most appropriate organisation that should strive to collect complete data on traffic incidents would be the ADT and the input should come from the traffic section of the Malta Police, the traffic warden system, insurance companies and the parties involved in the accidents by way of the self-completed forms (e.g., bumper to bumper).
The data appearing on the ADT Website is still not consistent and, though the 2005 data seems to be more complete with regard to the demography of the injured, there is total absence of statistics on any of the factors discussed earlier.
Better late than never! To be able to see trends from numbers, one needs to collect data over several years. The variety of the data collected and the consistency of the way data is presented would ultimately be useful guides for future policies.
(Concluded)
Distractions can be a cause; ignorance of the rules another. Efforts should be made to identify those drivers who systematically ignore even basic road etiquette. Some drivers may be downright criminal and sociopaths. These should be identified by establishing a set of criteria and punitive measures taken.
The mechanical condition and age of the vehicle may be an important factor contributing to a road accident. Easily visible markers that can be evaluated at the scene of the accident are tyre thread and side wall condition, and disc brake and brake pads' condition.
The general condition of the vehicle should also give clues to the owner's care and handling of the vehicle and its maintenance. Steering play or wobbly wheels and hydraulic fluid levels give other clues.
If the official at the scene notes enough signs, which indicate that a vehicle is in a poor state of maintenance, that official can order the vehicle be taken away for a more thorough vehicle survey by more technically qualified persons. This will not only serve to collect more specific data but also reveals any standard maintenance omissions by the owner and abuse of VRT.
There is no doubt that, even if impeccably maintained, older vehicles with older technology have an inherent disadvantage. They have less efficient braking, suspension and tyre profiles and less chassis rigidity. These increase the likelihood of inappropriate handling, in spite of acceptable speeds.
Time of day or night, and the relationship with the driver's immediate activities (shift work, night out or lack of sleep), may have an important bearing on the cause of an accident. Sunlight direction, windscreen clarity and the weather conditions prevailing are to be given due attention. Very strong winds and their direction may have contributed to the accident.
Road condition
After driver inexperience or inattention, excessive speed and vehicle condition, I would say that the fourth most important cause of accidents is the state of the road. There is no way that the authorities will admit to this in the short term.
There is no way that the official personnel arriving at the scene of an accident can be relied on to give an objective, impartial assessment of the state of the road in the 50 or 100 metres behind the vehicles involved and especially that segment of road with brake marks (modern electronically controlled braking with ABS and traction control may not leave brake marks).
It is up to the persons involved in the accident to examine and point out the deficiencies in the road surface, which in their opinion have contributed to the accident. The official present at the scene should still fill out his assessment of the road condition - namely, the regularity of the surface, its quality, camber and water retention characteristics, and the presence of loose gravel and slimy mud.
Large potholes could cause drivers to take sudden erratic avoidance manoeuvres without having any time to look out for other vehicles in close proximity. These large holes could be the cause of damage to tyres, wheel rims, suspension and wheel alignment, which could later, even much later, contribute to an accident.
Children on the streets can cause an accident with injury to themselves or third parties if they provoke a sudden avoidance manoeuvre. If the child is too young to be unaccompanied on the street, the parents should be liable as they have the responsibility to determine if the child is old enough to be left alone on the streets.
On the other hand, older children, because of a 'reckless' teenager disposition, lack education on road use or their ignorance may cause them to be held personally liable to have contributed to an accident or their own injury or that of third parties.
There seems to be a universal lack of awareness of the dangers of normal flowing traffic by the more senior and not so senior citizens, especially so by those who do not have driving experience. Pedestrians plodding along on the carriageway, even on the outer side of parked cars, are a common site in Maltese towns and villages.
There commonly seems to be disregard at choosing a safe spot to cross the road in the absence of pedestrian crossings or an underpasses. Educational campaigns for pedestrians are practically inexistent. Without some statistics or studies there is really no way to make a targeted educational campaign.
I have to date never seen or heard of a case in which traffic wardens or the police have stopped a pedestrian and pointed out that he/she has carried out a dangerous action. If these have been done, they should also be assimilated in databases.
Animals on the road, not just stray cats and dogs, but also horse-drawn vehicles and other animals with a rider, can potentially cause accidents with injury or damage to third parties. All horses should be electronically tagged and their drivers should have a certificate of proficiency in handling the animal if they intend to take the animal on the road.
Animals with riders or animal-drawn vehicles should be completely outlawed from using major roadways where the speed limit is higher than 50 km/h.
Data collection aim
The aim of all this data collection is to identify the more important factors leading to road traffic accidents, the causes leading to human casualties in particular but also to quantify the damage caused to vehicles and other property and the costs involved.
Once the factors are identified, strategies can be planned and implemented where and when possible to reduce the number and severity of road accidents. Many of the factors outlined here can be put down to disregard to advice laid down in the Highway Code.
Road accident data accessible to the public or to researchers is limited to the quarterly report released by the National Statistics Office and, more recently, from the ADT (Malta Transport Authority) Website. Over the past 10 years, data in NSO releases was not consistent.
Some data was rather useless while useful data cropped up in one release and disappeared in the next. Most of the data looks like a scoreboard for a turkey shoot. In the circumstances, the NSO did not do a bad job. The NSO collects basic, raw traffic data.
Unless the NSO receives specific requests from the people who should be involved in collecting and analysing what is happening on Maltese roads, the quarterly releases will remain simply a partial documentation of the times. The most appropriate organisation that should strive to collect complete data on traffic incidents would be the ADT and the input should come from the traffic section of the Malta Police, the traffic warden system, insurance companies and the parties involved in the accidents by way of the self-completed forms (e.g., bumper to bumper).
The data appearing on the ADT Website is still not consistent and, though the 2005 data seems to be more complete with regard to the demography of the injured, there is total absence of statistics on any of the factors discussed earlier.
Better late than never! To be able to see trends from numbers, one needs to collect data over several years. The variety of the data collected and the consistency of the way data is presented would ultimately be useful guides for future policies.
(Concluded)