Road safety should not be a seasonal concern

Malta’s roads claimed their first victim of 2025 on Monday night when a 25-year-old man smashed his car into a crash barrier, a tree and then a metal signpost. 

Dashcam footage of the incident that has been doing the rounds gives an indication that over speeding could have been a factor that caused the driver to lose control of his vehicle. Unfortunately, the car mounted a sloping crash barrier allowing it to skid along it before smashing into a tree and coming to a halt when hitting a large metal signpost. 

Ultimately, it will be up to the magisterial inquiry to determine the dynamics of the crash and whether driver behaviour, road design or car problems, could have contributed to the violent accident. 

However, unfortunately, the findings of the magisterial inquiry, just like any other inquiry into road accidents, will remain locked away; its findings kept secret. 

The authorities will not be privy to the details, which could be crucial to draft educational campaigns, design better roads, adopt safer infrastructure and propose policy changes to reduce as much as possible the risk of road accidents. 

We say this with a heavy heart because to date, the government has not implemented its proposal to set up a Transport Safety Investigative Commission, which had been promised in 2023. The commission was intended to bring under one umbrella two existing units tasked with investigating air and sea accidents and introduce a new bureau tasked with investigating road fatalities. 

Today, the Bureau of Air Accident Investigation and the Marine Safety Investigation Unit issue publicly available reports following noteworthy incidents. 

However, road accident investigations are limited to magisterial inquiries, which by their very nature are secret and seek to assign criminal blame, if at all. A road safety bureau is not intended to apportion blame but will help identify shortcomings and accident patterns to amend road safety policy. 

Unfortunately, the commission remains in limbo. The Insurance Association Malta (IAM) this week lamented the delay in setting up the Transport Safety Investigative Commission. “This delay, combined with recent serious traffic accidents, underscores the urgency of such an agency to analyse and prevent future incidents,” IAM said in a statement just hours before the year’s first fatal accident occurred. 

The association is right. Policy, road design, mitigation measures and educational campaigns work best when they are research-driven. And there is no better research than the data derived directly from investigations of accidents. Having a single focal point will definitely help. 

However, the IAM also called for a year-long commitment to road safety measures, noting that the lack of serious accidents during the festive season coincided with a greater presence of the authorities on the roads. 

“The risks associated with drink- and drug-driving are not confined to the holiday season. Road safety should never be treated as a seasonal concern; it must remain a priority every single day,” the association emphasised. 

Once again, this leader agrees with IAM that road safety campaigns and the presence of enforcement officials on the road should extend over the full year because this will serve as a deterrent for dangerous driving. 

Whether it is because of a moment’s inattention, a sadistic willingness to drive dangerously and risk their own lives and those of others, or a medical condition, accidents will always happen. 

However, minimising risks, educating people and increasing deterrence could help curb the number of accidents and their severity. 

Accidents are not just about loss of life. Fatal accidents may be talked about more because they are shocking. But road accidents can also cause injury that can be debilitating and have life-changing consequences. 

Last month, the NGO Doctors for Road Safety lamented the delay in the creation of the road safety commission, describing the apparent lethargy as symptomatic of how road safety is viewed by policymakers.