Over the past decade six people died on Anton Buttigieg Street in Zejtun, which on Wednesday claimed the life of a young couple and their daughter, leaving behind a four-year-old orphan.

Two of the victims were elderly pedestrians, two were drivers and the others were passengers, according to statistics provided by the police.

"The transport authority has plans to make the road safer. However, they have remained on paper and we want to see them implemented," Zejtun mayor Joe Attard said.

He called on the authority to publish and implement the plans as soon as possible.

Questions sent to the Infrastructure Ministry, which is responsible for the Malta Transport Authority (ADT), asking what the plans were and when they would be implemented, remained unanswered by the time of writing.

The dangerous design of the arterial road in Zejtun resurfaced this week after the tragic death of 20-year-olds Jonathan Seychell, his girlfriend Roxana D'Anastasi and their three-year-old daughter Kelsey.

They were driving along the road, heading towards Marsascala, when Mr Seychell, who was at the wheel, overtook two cars and slammed into a bowser before smashing against a wall.

The tragedy shocked their hometown and left four-year-old Lynill D'Anastasi without his parents and sister. He was spared because he was at his grandmother's house at the time of the accident. Two years ago, on September 14, 2007, a 73-year-old man died when he was hit by a car driven by a 30-year old man while walking in his hometown.

On November 2, 2002, another elderly pedestrian, a 71-year-old man, died in a similar accident when he was run over by a van.

Two years earlier, on November 30, 2000, a 39-year-old man died in a head-on collision with a bus while at the wheel of his van.

"Such fatalities are all too common. Crashes into people's parapets are frequent and traffic collisions are even more common," Mr Attard said.

He added that, since 1996, the council had been asking the ADT to take action to make the road safer. The main problem was that the road was long, so people stepped on the accelerator. At one point, the road "humped" and this sudden change in level did not allow motorists to see oncoming traffic, he explained.

When it was built, about 25 years ago, the road was an extension to the Ghaxaq bypass. But, unlike the bypass, the extension was not equipped with a service road for residents, a centre strip and two lanes on each carriageway, he said.

The absence of a centre strip allowed people to overtake, which meant they crossed carriageways with the risk of colliding with oncoming traffic.

If its requests did not materialise, the council felt at least other measures should be implemented as soon as possible. These should include increasing the number of pelican lights on the road from two to five and setting a speed limit.

Mr Attard said last year the ADT had drawn up a plan for the area but it remained on paper. Over the past years, the road was also discussed in Parliament as the present Parliamentary Secretary for Community Care, Mario Galea, then an MP, had tabled a series of questions on the subject.

One of the questions concerned the building of a service road for residents whose homes lined one side of the road. Replying to one of these questions in 2007, former Roads Minister Jesmond Mugliett said the service road could only be built if agricultural land on the other side was expropriated. This would require studies and planning permits.

In another reply, given by then Home Affairs Minister Tonio Borg, it emerged that between 2001 and February 2006 in the road in question there had been a fatality, 17 injuries and 68 accidents where no injuries were reported.