The newly set-up National Road Safety Council will be pressing for stronger enforcement of road safety rules, clamping down on mobile phone texting, lack of indicator use, double parking and obstruction.

Speaking at a conference this morning, consultant Pierre Vella said that Transport Malta had carried out an exercise observing cars exiting from junctions.

“When it comes to the red light, we literally see red. Up to eight seconds after the traffic lights turned red, we were still observing cars exiting the junction.

“But then when it comes to green light, the opposite occurs. Five seconds after the lights turned green, no cars had moved – the drivers were too busy fiddling about on their mobile phones.”

Mr Vella also pointed out that youths were gaining their driving licenses and consequently driving powerful cars at high speeds.

“We must have some sort of a racing circuit or a simulator which would create scenarios similar to an accident so that people learn how to manage their cars in those critical moments.

“This also applies to middle-aged people, who are now driving more powerful cars than they did when they first obtained their driving licenses.”

There were 300,000 cars on our roads, Mr Vella said, urging all drivers as well as pedestrians to join the effort towards behaving in a better way towards each other on the road.

Transport Minister Joe Mizzi said that each loss of life was a matter of national policy to the government and highlighted the urgent need to take all the necessary measures to address the fundamental cause of traffic accidents and hence further loss of life.

“As a regular road user, it is very sad to see people driving at high speeds or texting on their phones, to see drivers completely ignoring directions and try to go wrong ways just to save a few extra minutes of driving, risking a lot of lives.

“Also unfortunately, the cases of drink driving at night are not isolated, and this is a more serious problem on our roads than people think. The amount of damage found after the weekend on our roads is the biggest proof of that.”

He urged all council members to propose ideas, which he would then evaluate and do the utmost to implement.

Peter Paul Coleiro, senior operations manager within the Civil Protection Department, explained that the four main causes of road traffic accidents in Malta were the influence of alcohol, use of mobile phones while driving, excessive speed or overconfidence, and road conditions.