The European Road Safety Charter, which was signed in Malta yesterday, aims to decrease road accidents by half by the year 2010, Infrastructure, Transport and Communications Minister Austin Gatt said.

The minister together with a number of constituted bodies, public authorities, private companies, non-governmental organisations and the civil society, signed the charter as a sign of concrete action to positively influence road safety during the coming three years. The charter focused on three main road safety issues including vehicle safety and thus, innovation, safety devices and vehicle regulation policies as well as infrastructure safety and user behaviour.

“We regard the European Road Safety Charter to be a very important platform for sharing experiences and best practices in road safety across Europe,” said Dr Gatt.

He also pointed out that in 2005, 41,600 people had died in road traffic accidents in the European Union; a figure equivalent to a major airline disaster in Europe every day. Thus, the aim was to save the lives of 25,000 persons across Europe.

Minister Gatt pointed out that “Malta has undergone the unenviable transition from having one of the lowest levels of motorisation in Europe to having the highest with just under 300,000 vehicles licensed on the road; 76 per cent of which are private vehicles”.

Road safety laws in relation to drink driving, the mandatory use of crash helmets, seatbelts, and restricted use of mobile phones, more stringent training and testing of new drivers were not new to the local scenario.

Still, statistics showed that Malta has one death per million population, which is high when comparing travel distances in Malta, the speed we travel at and the types of roads we have to those of other EU countries, Dr Gatt pointed out.

Malta’s poor quality road infrastructure has often been considered to be a contributing factor to a number of road traffic accidents. Although works were being carried out to improve road infrastructure, this was clearly not enough, the minister said.

Figures for last year showed 16,000 road traffic accidents in Malta, including 14 fatalities and although some improvements had been registered, the recent traffic accident statistics are still far from satisfactory for government, Dr Gatt explained.

To reduce the probability of accidents, the government was trying to introduce an Intelligent Traffic Management System in order to improve efficiency and flow of traffic, controlling speed and reducing congestion. Most importantly though was the need to control the “unacceptably high level of motorisation” by encouraging more people to use public transport.

Thus the need for a public transport reform towards a safe and modern means of transport working longer hours, more frequently and covering more of the national territory. Minister Gatt simply described this as “a complete revolution from what we have today”.

In a statement, the Labour Party said that the design and quality of roads influenced driving and while a good road led to higher speeds, weak road design together with high speeds led to more accidents. The same could be said for intersections which were not properly designed.

Driving skills and respect to road signage were also very important to reduce the number of accidents.

The Labour Party spokesperson for infrastructure, Charles Buhagiar, also called for pedestrians to follow road regulations as to road crossing, for example. It also called for the government to provide more adequate infrastructure for pedestrians.