The National Statistics Office on Monday issued figures in which it said that in the first quarter of 2010, there were six traffic fatalities – down 2.9 per cent on the previous year.
The same set of figures shows that the number of reported traffic accidents stood at 3,302 – a decrease of 100 cases compared to the first few months of 2009. Of course, the figure which interests us the most is the first one - six traffic-related deaths in the first few months of the year. While any decrease in people being killed on our roads is positive, it must still be said that the figure is high. In 2009 a total of 21 people died on our roads – the victims included drivers of vehicles, passengers, motorcyclists and pedestrians.
As already mentioned, any drop in the amount of people who are killed or injured is positive, but something clearly needs to be done about it. Most accidents take place between 9am and midday – this is understandable as it is rush hour when deliveries are made and when people are going to work. However, between 3am and 6am, we see the lowest amount of accidents happening (Q1 2010). This leads us to ask whether our perception of drunken 20-something-year-olds running riot on the roads is correct.
Conversely, in the first quarter, the highest traffic casualty rate occurred on Sundays, accounting for 24.3 per cent of total casualties – if one were to read between the lines, one can argue that Sunday starts at one minute past midnight, meaning that there could be a high number of accidents which cause casualties during the early hours of the morning when the weekend crowd is going back home.
Perhaps the relevant authorities should ask the number crunchers to go into more detail in order to better establish what the causes for such a high casualty rate actually are. Whatever the outcome is, it is clear that we need to exercise more caution on our roads. The morning figures can be attributed, as we mentioned, to heavy traffic during rush hour – coupled with the very large amount of vehicles which choke our roads. Bumper-to-bumper accidents as well as ‘give-way’ accidents are a common sight on journeys during the morning period. Perhaps wardens and traffic police officers ought to concentrate their efforts on pulling people over for offences which they sometimes turn a blind eye to, such as tail-gating, speeding, risky overtaking manoeuvres, swapping lanes without indicating, and the like. If fines are dished out for such offences, it might make motorists think twice before causing risks to others.
On the other hand, there needs to be a concerted effort to curb drink-driving. One cannot deny that it happens, one only needs to go to a nightlife area to see that people do drink and they do attempt to drive home. There is a legal loophole which was exposed in the courts just months after breathalyser kits arrived in Malta whereby it was deemed to be in breach of people’s rights to carry out on-the-spot random tests. Some will argue that people should not be tested at random, but if we are honest with ourselves, would it not be better to save lives? We must not forget that people who are irresponsible in their driving are not only a danger to themselves, but are also a danger to others – passengers, other motorists and pedestrians.