There must come a time, in the foreseeable future, when any private citizen can successfully and with relative ease, challenge and sue any government department, authority or institution for damages sustained.

Recently, one late evening as it began to drizzle, a dear friend of mine negotiating, at a very modest velocity, the infamous bend by the poorly located galvanizing bath at the BIM factory in Marsa, momentarily lost control of his vehicle. He touched the kerb on the opposite side of the road with his left front wheel and came to rest with a jolt.

Providentially, nobody crashed into him and initially the damage was localised to a lost front-left tyre and a dent on the rear-left alloy wheel rim.

Prudently, while waiting for the tow-truck, he drove his vehicle to an open area, away from the road. He called me and I was on site within minutes. Moments later, another unfortunate fell victim to the same harsh reality. As this second fellow skid and went on carousel, he was hit head-on by yet another driver negotiating the bend! That very same night several similar occurrences were registered at the very same spot.

As reasoning human beings, we simply cannot afford to sit pretty any longer while accepting [and in some way explaining] such regrettable events either as some isolated ‘Act of God’, or the harsh punishment for some minor deficiency in skill; or, on the other hand, the quite deserving condemnation for some excess of pure folly.

Hence, who, singly or collectively, is to blame for such loss?

I asked around.

Momentarily excluding the possibility that there might have been a spill of diesel oil, there seems to be consensus on the fact that the banking at this bend is far from exemplary. The long neglected oozing of chemicals from the galvanising bath onto the road surface must have contributed in no small way to the granite-type high lustre. Possibly, now that we have something in the form of Transport Malta, an efficacious remedy to this disgraceful situation will not be too long in coming.

As for my friend, a highly competent professional with vast driving experience in Europe, Australia and New Zealand, hard pressed, like the majority of us, to eke out an existence in this enviable paradise of bureaucrats. Well … he opted to sell his Pajero for a song!

Ramon Borg Bartolo

SLIEMA