Triq l-Imġarr should carry commuters, families and tourists safely to and from the ferry. Instead it keeps sending injured people to hospital. On the morning of October 11, 2025, another multi-vehicle collision turned that stretch in Għajnsielem into an emergency zone. A Mitsubishi L200 and a Suzuki GSXR collided, with a 19-year-old riding pillion. A Toyota Corolla and an Alfa Romeo also ended up damaged. Two motorcyclists went to hospital, one grievously injured. Magistrate Brigitte Sultana ordered an inquiry. Police gathered the shattered pieces from a road that has produced too many scenes like this.

Għajnsielem mayor Kevin Cauchi reacted with the frustration of someone who has repeated the same warning for years. "The statistics speak for themselves, yet still nothing is being done," he wrote. He again demanded speed cameras, plastic bollards and traffic-calming measures along Triq l-Imġarr. His appeal came after yet another accident that no official can now call "isolated".

The problem didn't start this month. On October 2, 2025, a motorcyclist suffered serious injuries in another crash on the same corridor. On May 13, 2025, yet another collision on Triq l-Imġarr sent another victim into Gozo General Hospital. Residents who live along the route don't speak about "if" accidents happen. They speak about which victim and which bend.

Even five years ago, people kept warning the authorities. In 2018, the mayor supported a proposal for a speed camera on that very road using parliamentary statistics as justification: three fatalities, nine grievous injuries and 62 slight injuries in ten years. Count only the last half decade and the pattern still holds. That data didn't trigger enforcement. That data still sits on record because Transport Malta keeps delaying action.

You can also go back to news reports in 2023, when residents begged for intervention after two separate crashes smashed into the same building façade in a two-month span. The addresses change, the vehicles change, the faces change, but the location doesn't. That alone proves the crisis.

Transport Malta cannot claim ignorance. It even lists a "Gozo Mġarr" CCTV point among its live traffic monitoring network. That camera watches the road, counts the vehicles and records the risk in real time. Cameras that only watch don't prevent crashes. Cameras that enforce do.

Every mayor of Għajnsielem since 2013 has tried to get this addressed. In 2013, the Transport Ministry confirmed that Triq l-Imġarr, Għajnsielem sat among the roads proposed for speed cameras. Since then, council after council has repeated the same requests with no result on the ground. Formal queues of "applications being reviewed" don't reduce the speed of cars hurtling down straight stretches.

Transport Malta must drop the illusion that Gozo can remain camera-free or wait for some grand plan. Triq l-Imġarr has long, tempting straights that make drivers accelerate. It has bends where a split second turns into an ambulance trip. It has tourist drivers in rental cars, commuters rushing to catch ferries, and heavy vehicles competing for space. It also has little lighting at night, no strong visual lane separation and almost no real enforcement.

This road doesn't require more studies. It requires immediate interventions that other countries apply without drama: fixed speed cameras at the known black spots, average-speed cameras along the descent and ascent, plastic bollards in the overtaking danger zones, rumble strips before the curves, bright reflective markings, dynamic "your speed" screens, and regular enforcements timed with ferry departures. The council keeps asking for most of these tools and gets nothing but polite acknowledgements.

In 2019, TVM highlighted that Gozo still had no fixed speed cameras and reported that the Gozo Region president had filed official requests for Triq l-Imġarr. That was six years after the 2013 mention and six years before last week's crash. If someone wanted to move, by now the camera would stand on a concrete footing and drivers would slow down.

This latest case doesn't exist in isolation. October 2, October 11, May 13 and past years all form one line of evidence. People scroll past news alerts about motorcyclists flown off their bikes, commuters stuck behind wrecked vans, families held back by markers on the road to the ferry. That constant drip of collisions turns silence from the authorities into complicity.

Transport Malta must act in stages that start now:

1. Two fixed speed cameras on Triq l-Imġarr, one on each direction near the core black spots. Choose the sites with police crash maps and council input. Paint them bright, announce the locations and go live fast.

2. Average-speed enforcement between the Xewkija roundabout and the port approach. Drivers slow at fixed points then speed up. Section control covers the whole stretch.

3. Plastic bollards in overtaking sections so no one swings out into oncoming lanes. Add bypass gaps for emergency access only.

4. Rumble yellow strips placed before the bends so the vehicle itself signals danger to the driver.

5. Fresh reflective lane markings and reflective road studs (cat's eyes) for guidance at night and in bad weather.

6. Better lighting along dark parts rather than cheap fixtures that leave shadows.

7. Dynamic "Your Speed" signs at the entry points to shock drivers into braking.

8. Coordinated police and LESA enforcement timed with ferry arrival and departure windows weekly for two months and publicised in advance.

9. A public monthly crash counter on the Transport Malta site to create accountability and visibility.

10. Coordination with Infrastructure Malta for shoulder strengthening and junction redesign over the medium term.

11. A six-month independent review to measure the drop in collisions and injury severity.

These demands don't come from theory. They come from the ground. They come from the injured. They come from the residents and the mayor who has asked for speed cameras and bollards for years. They come from the knowledge that the road won't fix itself and drivers won't police themselves.

Transport Malta can stop hiding behind process. Publish a timeline: announce the installation plan in a few days, start works immediately and activate enforcement before Christmas. Crashes don't wait for tender boards or paperwork. The injured don't delay their visits to hospital until reports get drafted.

Some motorists complain that cameras feel punitive. Then design the system transparently. Mark them clearly, announce them publicly and link any fine revenue to road safety upgrades in Għajnsielem. That will convert resentment into cooperation.

People no longer accept consoling words after each collision. Helmets, seatbelts and luck should not decide survival on the main road to Gozo's harbour. Every week without action raises the odds of another stretcher, another inquiry and another quote from Kevin Cauchi saying he warned everyone again.

Transport Malta leaders already know the pattern. The council keeps repeating it. Residents keep naming it. Journalists keep publishing it. The CCTV keeps recording it. You can either watch the next crash through a monitor or you can prevent it with enforcement hardware and physical barriers.

Triq l-Imġarr doesn't need another survey or another polite ministerial remark. It needs visible equipment that slows traffic and stops overtaking. It needs agency executives who accept that no more serious injuries on one corridor means urgency, not excuses.

This is the week for the authority to cross from observation to intervention. The cameras exist. The bollards exist. The signs exist. The statistics exist. The only thing missing lies in the will to install them. If Transport Malta keeps delaying, it owns the next crash as much as the driver who speeds into it.