The Malta Insurance Association (MIA) has made a number of serious allegations with regard to police misconduct. If it is true that the police are advising traffic accident victims not to report intoxicated drivers, the officers in question are culpable and should be benched. Even more irresponsible and simply not on is the other allegation that MIA had presented a studied set of proposals to the minister responsible for transport and enforcement in October 2020 but was greeted with “complete indifference”.
Basically, the situation is that random breathalyser tests are not being done by the police even when they harbour a certain degree of suspicion that drink-driving was the main factor for a serious, if not fatal, traffic accident. As it is, the police are already unreasonably shackled by the provisions of our laws that only empower them to conduct these tests for driving under the influence of drink or drugs when there is an objectively reasonable situation to that effect. Our legislation in this regard needs urgent updating to impose, not simply allow, those tests to be conducted in all cases of serious traffic accidents. Furthermore, the police should have the additional power of conducting random tests for drink and drug driving, more so now that the consumption of cannabis for recreational use has been legalised.
Updating our traffic laws in that sense will bring us on a par with such countries as Hong Kong, Singapore, New Zealand, Australia and the majority of EU countries where the traffic police conduct these kinds of tests with great zeal and a sense of duty. How can our government remain so indifferent when road safety scores low and young lives are being regularly lost because of slack enforcement by who should know better? It is only during the run-up to the Christmas season and the ushering in of a New Year that enforcement is upped, contrary to what happens or does not happen during the rest of the year.
It is to be recalled that in 2018, the ministry for the Family, Children’s Rights and Social Solidarity launched a National Alcohol Policy 2018-2023. One dimension of that policy was that of attempting to moderate drinking behaviour among adults. Indeed, irresponsible and excessive drinking compromises the health of the individual and induces several social consequences which may include major repercussions for both the individual and the family. I recall that at the time an inter-ministerial task committee had been created to adopt a multi-dimensional policy approach to holistically address this reality and further improve the well-being of our society as a whole, with a specific aim of averting drink driving.
I believe that a draft law had, at one stage, been prepared in which, among other relevant and important alcohol issues, there was included an amendment to our traffic laws to grant extra power to our police to be able to carry out random tests for drink and drug driving and to make it a duty of theirs to do so with respect to all drivers involved in any serious traffic accident. An update by the respective ministry as to what stage the implementation of that national policy arrived at would not go amiss. Also relevant would be the reaction of the Malta Road Safety Council to the proposals being advanced by the MIA. Anything that could somehow, directly or indirectly, improve safety on our roads should never be left by the wayside. Otherwise, we seriously risk turning our roads into a graveyard.
An updated and amended traffic legislative framework should envisage the police having the authority to stop you at any time while you are driving and request you to take a passive breath test or a breath screening test. They do not have to suspect that you are over the limit or have breached any traffic law to get you to take one of these tests.
A normal drink-driving charge should start when a police officer stops you and requests a passive breath test. Here the officer will ask you to speak your name and address into a handheld device that, I presume, is locally available. Failing this test would normally entail your being requested to undergo a breath screening test unless a breath screening device is unavailable. For this test, you would have to either blow into a bag or into a straw attached to a handheld device. Either will indicate how much alcohol you have had to drink.
The result of a breath-screening test would not be able to be used as evidence in Court against you but if you fail the test you can be required to accompany the police officer to another place for an evidential breath test or an evidential blood test or both. Normally “another place” could mean the nearest police station. The results of these evidential tests can then be used to support a charge against you.
The risks of drink and drug driving can never be emphasised enough. Of course, having in place effective and updated traffic legislation with no proper enforcement and without a proper public awareness campaign all year round to highlight the fatal and tragic potential of such driving in a manner to scare the wits out of irresponsible drivers would simply be a white elephant and a useless effort.
The MIA’s sensible proposals should be heeded immediately and Transport Malta and all the respective authorities must get their act together for a zero-accident tolerance policy.
Dr Mark Said is an advocate