‘One Too Many’ was the title of a protest that took place in Valletta yesterday. The protest was against violence against women, inspired by the recent case of Eleanor Mangion Walker.

With all due respect to this protest and the unfortunately dead person, we would like to take the title and use it in a completely different context.

One too many: once again we had the sorry duty to inform the country of yet another death of a biker. We have had far too many mortal accidents involving bikers.

Motorbikes are proliferating on our roads. This has been going on for a number of years and was no doubt increased by the recent easing of rules announced by the government before the end of last year.

We are surely not ascribing the number of bike deaths to the government and surely the government did not intend its easing to lead to more deaths on the road.

But as anybody who drives on our congested roads especially in these hot days can tell, motor bikes (we are generalizing here) tend to play around with road sense and put themselves in imminent danger.

The numbers of bikers on the roads show how many people have taken to bikes for pleasure driving, as can be seen any Sunday morning.

But some drive at excessive speed which, if dangerous in a car is all the more dangerous on a bike. A car is difficult to control if driven at speed but a motorbike is even more dangerous if driven at speed. In fact some of the deaths have been indeed caused by excessive speed.

Along with excessive speed, what irks other drivers and pedestrians is the way some bikers play cavalier with traffic rules. A bike is just another vehicle on the road and the rules of the road must be followed. As we all know, we get bikers overtaking on the right, and even on the left. Sometimes you get two bikes overtaking you on either side.

We have no idea how this can be curbed but it is imperative for them to be curbed. A bike is just another vehicle on the road and it must follow the rules that apply to the other vehicles. If cars follow each other in an orderly manner, so too must the bikes.

Obviously, this situation is not restricted to Malta alone. Those who have been to Rome, for instance, know that at every intersection or red light, bikes buzz around the cars like angry bees and flock at the top of the queue.

Our complaint as regards bikes is motivated solely by the many bike-related deaths we have been having on our roads. As the slogan said: each death is ‘one too many’. Ask the mothers of the bikers, their relatives, their loved ones whose lives have been ruined perhaps because of a burst of speed, or a sheer coincidence. Or maybe because of bad driving by a car driver.