Faster commuting options is not a luxury but a fatal alternative as compared to a safe commute. Although Malta saw the sharpest decrease in traffic fatalities in the European Union during 2020, the figures of road accidents are bound to scare anyone using roadways for frequent travel.

Road deaths are largely preventable. The strategies to reduce the carnage go under different names in different places, from Vision Zero to the Safe Systems Approach, but they are not really that distinct substantively. In any traffic accident, there may, at most, be involved six actors. The driver, the other driver, the vehicle, the other vehicle, the road, the environment. Other vehicles (and their drivers) may also have a role to play, even if they are not directly involved in the crash.

Unlike walking, driving is a privilege, not a right. Road collisions and fatalities incur huge economic costs at a national level, which includes a burden on the health, insurance and legal systems. Moreover, they can have negative social implications for the families of those involved as well as on local communities. Our safety advocacy sector should lay greater emphasis on the use of the three Es of Engineering, Enforcement and Education to better promote and make more effective strategies. This should be extended with other Es, including variously Emergency Services, Evaluation, Environment, Encouragement and Everyone Else.

Like congestion and global warming, our road death toll can be significantly reduced, but there is little evidence that Malta is collectively interested in solving it. While there are obviously advocates, they do not have the upper hand, otherwise, deaths would not be rising in recent months off their 2020 lows.

Dr Mark Said

Msida