A Eurobarometer report issued earlier this week showed Malta to have the worst record in the increase of the number of fatalities caused by traffic accidents.

While Malta has, for many years, been the best performer in terms of fatalities on roads per number of inhabitants, these new figures show that there was a 31 per cent increase from 2001 figures to 2009 figures.

In 2001, Malta was cited as having 41 traffic deaths per one million inhabitants. In 2009, the figure jumped to 51 deaths per million inhabitants – as mentioned, a 31 per cent jump. However, one must also dig a little deeper in the sense that Malta only has about 400,000 inhabitants, and so in doing the arithmetic, it works out to just over 20 – which tallies with national statistics.

What is the most worrying is that in almost all EU states, bar Romania and Malta, traffic accident fatalities dropped significantly. The drops range from 54 per cent in Latvia to 11 per cent in Bulgaria. It was only Malta and Romania which registered increases and, to reinforce the point further, Romania registered an increase of 14 per cent while Malta’s increase was 31 per cent.

This is extremely worrying. It is becoming more and more common to receive news about cyclists being hit, people (including young children) being mown down on zebra and pelican crossings, youngsters smashing into other cars early in the morning.

And it is getting worse. Assistant Police Commissioner Josie Brincat – in charge of the police Traffic Section – gave an interview to this newspaper in which he went on record saying that Maltese drivers are ill-tempered and uneducated. We could not agree with him more. Just a simple trip from Valletta to Sliema is tantamount to a death race. Over just a few kilometres, the amount of near misses is just phenomenal.

We have a major problem and it is getting worse and it is high time that something is done. There are many facets to the problem. As things stand, enforcement is lax and penalties are far too lenient – but at least regulation is in the pipeline to dish out much harsher penalties for petty driving offences. And this is where we must start from. Unless drivers are not penalised heavily for (for eg) not indicating, using a mobile phone while driving, overtaking when there is a double demarcation line (and many, many more), then things will only continue to worsen.

But that is not the end of it. Too many young petrol (alcohol?) heads are out on the roads in cars which are far too powerful for them. How can an 18-year-old have the experience and ability to handle a two-litre sports engine car? How can they be allowed to install turbo and other performance enhancers in 1.2 litre cars which are designed for inner city use? It is mad.

The authorities also need to look at the legal loophole whereby random breathalyser tests are not allowed. Surely, with a bit of discretion (cars veering left, right and centre during the weekend early hours) police officers should be granted the power to stop motorists who are driving under the influence and clearly showing it by their erratic decisions.

Far too many innocent lives have been lost. And if anyone wants to use the trump card ‘human rights’ as they inevitably do at any possible opportunity – may we remind that a human right can only be enjoyed if a person is still alive. Too many people have been stripped of that opportunity.