Dangerous grating

I returned from posting a letter at the Cospicua Malta Post office beside the dockyard south gate and there crying his eyes out was a three-year-old boy. His shoes slid through the grating (side arched) steel bars, and his leg went in as far as his knees. He almost broke his leg and his father had to ease his leg out carefully.

About a week earlier I saw an elderly woman facing the same dilemma with her foot trapped. She was worse off than the little boy.

When I investigated this issue, I found that the grating was wrongly designed as the multiple long bars, parallel with the road, were not tied together at all.

The flat bars used to make up the gratings had their widest part in a vertical direction to support the load but with the bars separated and untied, it was easy for them to move and bend sideways under the load. This is what had happened and half of the bars are bent, arched sideways, losing all their loading capacity, opening up gaps to trap anyone walking on them.

I suggest the grating should be removed, turned upside down and using a portable welding set, two tie bars should be welded underneath all the bars to tie them together. These long tie bars, the length of the grating, would not only stop the flat bars from moving sideways but stop them from twisting.

I hope the authorities concerned will take the corrective measures urgently as more people can get hurt and the grating will collapse under traffic loads.

If this were the US, the authorities would go bankrupt with the court cases that would be instituted.