There are currently 64 magisterial inquiries looking into traffic accidents that have been pending for more than 60 days, the justice minister told parliament.

Replying to a parliamentary question by PL MP Katya De Giovanni, Jonathan Attard said 59 of the inquiries are pending before the Maltese courts and another five before the Gozo court. 

De Giovanni also asked how many of the pending inquiries risked becoming time-barred. 

However, Attard said only the magistrate conducting the in genere could answer the question.

The current magisterial inquiries law contains a provision saying that inquiries should be completed within 60 days.

However, this provision is often ignored and a new bill proposed by the government will extend this to six months.

But magistrates will now have a hard two-year deadline to complete their work. Once the two years are up, the magistrate will have to send all the inquiry’s material to the Attorney General, whether the inquiry is ready or not.

Road accident investigations are limited to magisterial inquiries, are kept secret and merely seek to assign blame.

Separately the government has promised the setting up of a bureau to investigate road accidents.

It was meant to start operating in December 2024 after 2023 saw a record number of deaths on the roads.

A government document on safer transport had envisaged all necessary legal changes would be presented to parliament by the end of July 2024, “with the aim of the changes coming into force by the end of December 2023”.

However, in December the transport ministry told Times of Malta that legal details were still being ironed out before they went to cabinet and parliament.