The Attard local council has been asking Transport Malta to implement speed cameras along Central Link for over a year and a half.

Mayor Stefan Cordina informed The Malta Independent that “way back in November 2021, the Council asked for an urgent meeting with Transport Malta officials regarding the overspeeding along the Central Link.”

“We kept sending constant reminders and also met with TM officials. We asked TM to take action several times,” Cordina said.

This news follows the tragic passing of 17-year-old Kacey Sciberras, who died on Sunday morning when the driver of a car she was riding in as a passenger lost control of the vehicle. The accident happened on Tumas Chetcuti Street, more known as the Central Link.

Hours after this happened, visibly emotional Attard Labour Party councillor Victor Galea spoke to Net TV and slammed Transport Malta for not installing speed cameras in the area where this girl lost her life, after the council had been insisting that speed cameras needed to be installed.

“It’s shameful,” the Labour councillor said. Representatives of the two parties had gone to the Transport Ministry to insist with Transport Malta that speed cameras were required to act as a deterrent in the area, but the matter was still being studied, they were told.

Cordina added that the council receives complaints “that overspeeding occurs daily especially late at night and during the weekends.”

This newsroom also contacted TM for an update on the studies being carried out on Central Link, but TM never sent a response.

Times of Malta received a response from TM where it said that it is waiting for the recommendations of an external safety audit on the Central Link road, which is in its “final stages” before installing safety features that it says could include speed cameras.

Before the council raised a flag about this problem, Nationalist MP David Agius had already asked a parliamentary question to then Transport Minister Ian Borg in March 2021.

At the time Agius asked whether there were any plans to install speed cameras on Central Link to prevent excessive speeding. Borg responded by saying that there were already speed cameras in Attard and these were not going to be removed.

One month later in April 2021, Agius asked Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri for the number of contraventions for excessive speeding that were given out between January 2021 and 15 March 2021 on the Central link.

Camilleri responded by saying that no fines had been given.

When responding to a parliamentary question put forward by PN MP Ivan Bartolo, Borg confirmed that a meeting between the Attard local council and the traffic management committee took place on 6 January 2022, and studies on overspeeding were taking place throughout the day and night.

 

PN MP Beppe Fenech Adami, in October 2022, asked Camilleri about what the police and LESA are doing to control overspeeding on Central Link. Camilleri said that this is being controlled with frequent police and LESA presence.