Cycling advocates are warning that rainwater gratings can be lethal and are calling on local councils to ensure cyclists’ safety as they would for motorists.

Gratings slotted in riders’ direction of travel can cause serious injuries which a helmet cannot prevent, Bicycling Advocacy Group spokesman Jim Wightman told the Times of Malta.

“These gratings turn up in the most unexpected places, often at the bottom of slopes, where braking quickly can be tricky, or to the side of the road, where cyclists are most likely to be.

“Imagine if you were a car driver following a cyclist who suddenly comes to an immediate stop. How do you avoid them? In a similar way, how do cyclists avoid a grating strung across the road like the ones we see in Birkirkara?” he asked, adding that something needs to be done on a national level, as cyclists have come across such gratings also in Luqa, Marsascala, Naxxar and tal-Qroqq.

A cyclist who ended up with more than 10 stitches to his face due to an accident in Birkirkara said his injuries were still visible two months on. When cycling, he has to always be on the lookout for unsafe roads like the one he encountered in December of last year.

“I had to learn the hard way that there’s no way you can keep controlling your own fate under such conditions. Even if I had spotted the danger in time, there would have been little chance to avoid it, as the grid spanned the entire road,” he said of gratings on Ħas-Sajjied Road.

He suffered a broken nose, deep laceration of the lower lip, torn frenulum and extensive facial abrasions, apart from material damage to his bike, helmet and glasses.

The local council’s lawyer informed him that the road had been deemed safe. “That begs the question how many broken bones are required before a road can be classified as unsafe.”

The BAG has contacted the Birkirkara local council, hoping that just like what happened with the Gżira bus lane some years back, hazardous gratings will be made safe.

The local council discussed the issue during a meeting this week. However, a spokesman told the Times of Malta that there were a series of issues it had to consider before taking any decisions.

It must consider the impact of a change in the design of the gratings in the old areas of Birkirkara, which have flooding problems. The local council will therefore consult with Transport Malta, as it is reluctant to make changes that could affect third parties.

Meanwhile, some of the roads that BAG flagged, which are off arteries such as Valley and Naxxar roads and Psaila Street, are excluded from its responsibilities, the spokesman added.

Following the council’s meeting, Mr Wightman told this newspaper it was unacceptable to have a safe grating 10 metres away from another one that was potentially hazardous, about which the authorities have known for years.

“If this was a missing drain cover with the potential of swallowing a car tyre, it would be fixed in an instant,” he said.

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