It’s unbelievable the tense situation one has to cope with every time one enters and exits a tunnel in Malta to avoid getting a ticket from one of those “hopefully calibrated” speed cameras. Or a hidden warden with his small handheld PC “ready to fire” and his eyes wide open ready to take down your car’s registration number. In a matter of two seconds one has to check his speed limit and reduce it abruptly, which confuses the driver behind, switch on the head lamps, check his fastened seatbelt and keep his eye on the traffic and avoid enormous pot holes at the same time. Isn’t this unbelievable?

Tunnels are a nightmare, also because of those inadequate orange lights and their horrible unfinished appearance. Unlike tunnels abroad, which are well-lit to avoid accidents, do not leak water, are marked with luminous paint and crash barriers secured on both sides, they are also decently painted white or light grey. Unlike ours, which do not have anything like this but on the contrary are accidents waiting to happen besides being an eyesore.

To make matters worse, the government doesn’t bother to improve these structures but on the contrary invents inappropriate situations, mostly by taking the most unbelievable decision to impose speed limits of 45kms/h when

entering a tunnel. This makes people abruptly reduce their normal speed limit of around 60-80 kms to 45km/h and then speed up again while exiting; causing confusion and ridiculously funny situations.

Not to mention the unrealistic speed limit – one would prefer driving a bicycle instead of a four-wheel vehicle – and the indecently inflated ticket charges for exceeding this speed limit, together with those ridiculous charges for not switching on the lights when entering tunnels.

The government only shows a lack of seriousness by imposing such laws copied from other countries but with ridiculous low speed limits, together with the sad understanding that the government is only trying to squeeze more money out of us.

It’s a pity seeing the state this country has gotten into, especially when one considers the expensive standard of living this present government has achieved, where electricity, water, gas, food, fuel, clothes, houses, cars, and so on have become as expensive as gold and nobody can afford anything…

I feel a great pity when I see people buying only items from sales and second hand stuff because they can’t afford anything new.

In a matter of time, we shall be just like other EU countries… infected with refugees taking our homes, rights and sometimes also jobs and we will only afford to buy from junk yards or from mega sales, limiting ourselves to switch on the heater or AC for three hours a day and having no other alternative to look for work abroad, as is already happening in many cases, since Malta has nothing to offer us at all.

Fabrizio Gatt

SAN GWANN