Labour lambastes Transport Malta’s ‘unexplainable’ reaction to requests for road safety measures in Qormi, Żejtun

“This reaction clearly shows that Lawrence Gonzi’s Government does not care about the safety of road users,” Buhagiar charged.

He explained how the Labour-led Qormi Local Council had requested the implementation of the promise made by the ADT so that pedestrians could cross from one side of Qormi without danger.

“Despite the fact that this footbridge has been promised for quite some time, and even a development permit was issued for it, now the Government does not do construct it because only an average of 42 persons a week cross from it,” Buhagiar lamented.

“This is an unacceptable and frankly irrational reasoning,” he insisted.

Buhagiar recalled how during in the past few years, 3 persons had died when they were crossing or walking down the road.

“Maybe Lawrence Gonzi’s Government also describes these victims with the world ‘only’?” he asked.

Buhagiar also recalled how on the case of Anton Buttigieg Road in Żejtun, the PL had presented a motion in Parliament to discuss the safety measures that were needed so that this road offers more safety to its users, by the Gonzi Government had also voted against that motion.

“During the years, a lot of serious traffic accidents have taken place in this road where some time ago, a whole family had died,” he lamented.

Buhagiar lambasted this behaviour as “shameful from a Government and an authority paid out of public coffers,” he concluded his statement.

On 22 August 2010, MaltaToday had reported that the Qormi Local council held a press conference in the same location where a fatal accident had occurred five years ago, to voice its concerns again over the lack of interest of relevant authorities to construct a footbridge for easier and safer crossing.

Triq is-Sebh, more commonly known as the Mrieħel bypass, was the location of a deadly accident which saw two young residents from Qormi lose their lives while trying to cross.

Graziella Fenech and Emma Marie Housley were run over and killed on 21 August 2005, by then 23-year old Ivan Cutajar.

The Mrieħel bypass had been the subject of inconvenience to the somewhat 300 residents of the small Qormi community of tal-Blat 2. The residents need to cross the dangerous roads amid constantly passing cars, generally at high speeds, to get to the village centre.

For the past 20 years, residents had been given no alternative to crossing the road and getting to the central area of Qormi to get on with their daily needs. The only option had been by foot or car, because the area also cannot be accessed by public transport.

The Qormi Local Council, under the direction of Mayor Jesmond Aquilina, had proposed the construction of a footbridge across the bypass, which was meant to be completed by 2007.

Although the permit got approved by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority (MEPA) around a year ago, no progress appeared to have been made.

“The footbridge was originally included in the plan for the Mrieħel bypass, which divided the area of tal-Blat 2 from the rest of Qormi…these residents have no services at their disposal and are left with no choice but to cross the road by foot,” a spokesperson for the local council had said.

Speed cameras had been installed along the bypass after the accident, together with signs warning drivers to slow down. Aquilina said that one of the speed cameras had been recently broken in another motor accident.

The mayor had complained that the issue had been raised in parliament numerous times, but to no avail.