I wrote three months ago about safer driving in Malta. I highlighted the five pillars of road safety: safer drivers; stricter enforcement and driver education; the construction of safer roads; the imposition of safer speeds to align with the road conditions; and safer vehicles.
I stressed that of these, encouraging safer drivers was paramount. “The road-user is the first link in the safety chain and the one most prone to error. Whatever the technical measures in place, the effectiveness of road safety policy depends ultimately on users’ behaviour.”
Driving back and forth on our roads, in cars of varying mechanical condition, are thousands of fallible, absent-minded human beings, some with poor eye-sight or slow reactions, others of varying skills at judging speed and distance, and many prone to fits of road rage. It is a tribute to the human animal that total carnage does not ensue.
But what I failed to underline sufficiently was the part played by alcohol in impairing the individual driver’s capacity to drive safely. The Road Safety Council is doing excellent work in trying to bring the issue to the notice of young people. It has launched an imaginative campaign aimed at “opening young people’s eyes to the dangers of driving under the influence [of drink]”.
Although it is customary to highlight the issue in the run-up to the Christmas festivities when drinking is an important feature of the spirit and enjoyment of Christmas, the council has quite rightly emphasised that drink-driving is a problem affecting Malta all the year round.
The council took advantage at the ‘Tomorrow’s Land’ music festival at Marsa in the summer to give advice to young people attending about the risks of drink-driving, the limits they should observe and, most importantly, what to look for if they suspected that others getting behind the wheel might be too drunk to drive.
It is crucial to inculcate a sense of responsibility about drinking and driving. The responsibility of individuals to look out for the safety of their friends who may be incapable of driving safely should also form an intrinsic part of this. Partnerships with driving instructors have also been established by the Road Safety Council to relay a clear message to learner drivers about the law on drinking and driving.
But this will not be enough in itself. Malta now has an endemic heavy-drinking culture. It is so serious that the Health Department is considering setting up clinics in Paceville and other entertainment hot-spots to respond to the high demand for hospital services by drunken revellers – mostly young – at the weekend. Binge-drinking has now become part of our entertainment and hedonistic partying culture, especially among youths.
But excessive drinking is not the preserve of young people only. The most recent European Health Survey Interview shows that thousands of Maltese people over 35 years of age consume highly risky amounts of alcohol almost every day of the week.
Malta now has an endemic heavy-drinking culture. It is so serious that the Health Department is considering setting up clinics in Paceville
While it does not logically follow that the inordinate level of drinking in Malta must lead inevitably to more people drinking and driving, it seems highly likely that a correlation exists between the two. Overall, the number of drivers caught under the influence of alcohol has increased considerably since 2012, with 2014 being the year with the worst record.
Hardly a day goes by without reading of traffic accidents directly caused by drunk drivers. Over the past five years, according to a report in The Malta Independent, there were 946 cases of drink-driving charges arraigned in court, or an average of about 189 each year. Just over half (548) were found guilty.
About 10 per cent of deaths on Malta’s roads involve drivers who are over the legal drink-driving limit. That statistic takes no account of drivers and pedestrians who are maimed for life by drunken drivers. The recent incident of the young driver of a car that mounted the curb in Sliema injuring eight people illustrates the point. He was allegedly more than three times over the legal limit. Drunk-driving kills and maims.
The drink-driving limit in Malta was set at 80mg in every 100ml of blood 20 years ago. The government is considering new laws to slash this limit by almost half to 50mg in every 100ml of blood to bring it into line with the law in many advanced countries in Western Europe where 50mg is the average.
The arguments in favour of a reduction in Malta’s legal drink-driving limits on the grounds that it could save lives and reduce accidents seem irrefutable. Drink affects the concentration, reactions and coordination of drivers. Their ability to drive safely is seriously undermined. They are not fit to be behind the wheel.
The government’s plans to reduce the present limit should be fully supported. The limit is also planned to be set at 20mg for motorcyclists and drivers of large vehicles, and drivers who have held their licence for less than two years. There would also be a zero alcohol limit for bus, taxi and mini-bus drivers.
The crux of the issue, however, is not simply about setting lower drink-driving alcohol levels. It is about ensuring that people do not drink and drive. Drink-driving and the lackadaisical attitude shown by Maltese towards the crime is a serious cause for concern.
The work of the Road Safety Council and the government information about the perils of drink-driving are absolutely invaluable and commendable. But like so much else in Malta, the Maltese only understand the serious limits set by the letter of the law if it is applied rigorously, ruthlessly and often.
The figures quoted above showing, on average, only 189 people arraigned in court in each of the last five years (just over one every other day) seem to underscore a feeling that the police are not applying the law rigorously enough. Knowing that you will not be caught encourages drink-driving.
New legislation is immaterial if there is not the political will to ensure it is rigidly enforced. If the battle against those who drink and drive is to be won there must be a greater police presence on the roads. Random breathalyser tests by police officers should be permitted. The punishments for drink-driving should be increased. A culture of intolerance to drink-driving must prevail if lives are to be saved.
This is a Times of Malta print opinion piece