The accident that took place on the Regional Road in St Julian’s yesterday was one that was waiting to happen. Luckily, there were no injuries.
The downhill slope leading towards the tunnels is always slippery, even when it is not raining. Something seems to be wrong with the surface as there is no grip. Drivers who use the stretch often know about it, and take precautions. Others who may not be so familiar with the area may find the going tougher.
There are other considerations that need to be made. It is not only the driver of the van and the passenger with him who were lucky to escape unhurt, except for the fright they both had. The fact that no cars were passing or parked beneath the bridge and no pedestrians were walking underneath the structure is, in itself, so unusual at the time the accident took place – just after 8am.
The railings that collapsed on the road below have been in poor shape for many months, if not years. There have been sections of them that have crumbled away; some of the steel pipes are missing too. There are no crash barriers to add further protection.
So much work was carried out on the other Regional road bridge (the one that is closer to Paceville) a few years ago, but no thought was spared on the maintenance of the bridge where yesterday’s accident took place.
Although there is no danger of it collapsing, regular maintenance should have involved the repair of the crumbling railings, as well as the installation of crash barriers, not to mention a new layer of tarmac that provides better grip.
Hopefully, we will learn from yesterday’s accident, and thankfully, no one was hurt.
Another thing we must point out is that drivers who were in the area soon after the accident took place continued driving up towards San Gwann from underneath the bridge, manoeuvring their vehicle over the debris that had fallen down.
They took a big risk by doing so, as other debris could have fallen and the van itself was still hanging over the bridge. Why people take such risks to save a few minutes is incredible.
Thankfully, the police soon turned up to close the stretch to traffic until it was cleaned up and the danger removed.