One of the posters from the Express Trailers campaign.

The promotion of more responsible road sharing is the main aim of the road safety campaign recently launched by Express Trailers.

The campaign was heralded by Transport Minister Ian Borg who described it as a versatile effort which reaches different sectors of society. He stressed that education was the key towards safer roads.

Dr Borg commended the initiative and encouraged similar companies to come up with their own efforts towards road safety.

Express Trailers chairman and CEO, Franco Azzopardi said: “Our company is regarded as the leading transport and logistics operator in Malta. Although we deploy a large fleet of trucks, trailers and vans to deliver most of our essential day to day commodities, we acknowledge that we are also a nuisance on the road. Therefore, we decided that we wanted to take an active role in the community and we felt that promoting road safety would be most in line with our operations as active road users.”

The company’s belief is that road safety should be a top priority for everyone, especially drivers who are being called to drive responsibly and protect more vulnerable road users.

Mr Azzopardi said that on the road, everyone is borrowing space and everyone has an acquired right to use roads, adding that every road user is responsible for the safety of others.

Dr Borg explained the work being done by the ministry towards this aim, such as designing safer roads and including safety facilities such as improved crash barriers which better protect motorbike riders.

He also spoke about the strengthened Transport Malta enforcement team, which now consists of 166 members.

Pierre Vella, from the Malta Road Safety Council, reiterated the council’s support to ensure the effectiveness of this campaign.

“Everyone is a road user, and therefore, everyone is being called to act responsibly on the road,” Mr Vella said.

“Ensuring that our roads are safe should not only be the duty of the authorities or policy makers, but it is high time that everyone understands that on the road, we are all vulnerable and we can all contribute by reducing speed, avoiding dangerous manoeuvres and respecting all driving regulations,” Mr Vella pointed out.