Deadliest week for road fatalities in at least 25 years

Six people were killed between July 23 and 29, marking the deadliest week on Malta’s roads in at least 25 years, a toll that one expert says is a result of chronic failure to prioritise safety in road design.

Data compiled by transport activist Paolo Cassar Manghi shows that no other seven-day period since at least 2000 has recorded so many road deaths.

Cassar Manghi, a transport researcher and road safety advocate, described the spike in fatalities as “tragic but not surprising”, warning that the country’s road infrastructure often encourages speed rather than discouraging risk.

Among the six victims were a driving instructor crushed by a runaway bus, a motorcyclist and a pedestrian killed in a crash involving a parked car. On the same week, three others were killed in unrelated violent incidents, in one of the bloodiest weeks in Malta on record.

On July 23, a 79-year-old woman from Mosta died after the Renault van she was a passenger in crashed with a Suzuki Swift car in Lija.

Three days later, Tenyo Kosev died when his Honda motorcycle was involved in a collision with a BMW 1 Series motorcycle in Pembroke at around 1am.

Last Sunday, three people died. Mildred Azzopardi was crushed to death after a vehicle ploughed into a parked car, fatally hitting the 62-year-old. Azzopardi’s husband, Alfred, was critically injured. Benjamin Chetcuti, who was driving the car that hit the Azzopardis, is facing charges of manslaughter and driving under the influence of alcohol.

The other two victims were a motorcyclist and a car passenger who was involved in a collision with a car driven by former president George Abela with his wife Margaret in the passenger seat.

On Tuesday, Karmenu Muscat, a Tallinja driving instructor, died at the Floriana Park and Ride when a bus rolled back on him.

On Tuesday, Karmenu Muscat, a Tallinja driving instructor, died in a freak accident at the Floriana Park and Ride when a bus rolled back on him.

According to Cassar Manghi – who has spent years compiling road fatality data going back to the 1970s – this deadly trend reflects a deeper structural failure.

He argues that many of Malta’s roads are designed to reduce travel time rather than safeguard lives.

He said roads need to be designed with safety in mind, such as having narrower lanes and designing roads to swerve instead of remaining straight, so that drivers automatically slow down. The narrower roads strategy had been favoured by the government around 25 years ago but that was abandoned in favour of bigger roads in the last years.

Manghi noted that while enforcement is important, safe road design reduces the reliance on constant policing. “If you build roads that naturally slow people down, you reduce the need for flashing lights and fines. Design is prevention.”

17 fatalities this year

So far this year, 17 people have died on Malta’s roads.

Besides the six who died in July, five were killed in June, one in May, one in April, one in February and three in January.

In 2022, Malta’s deadliest year on record, 14 had died by August 1. By the end of that year, 26 people were killed on the road.

Towards the end of that year, then transport minister Aaron Farrugia announced the setting up of a body to investigate collisions and draw lessons from them.

That body, labelled the Traffic Investigation Bureau, has still not been set up despite a government document setting an end of 2023 deadline.

At the end of May, the police announced the Roads Policing Unit, a specialised police department to enforce traffic rules and investigate the causes of major traffic accidents.

Anthony Agius and Dennis Mifsud were shot in Rabat.

Transport Minister Chris Bonett, however, has insisted that the police unit is not a replacement for the bureau and the two bodies will work together.

“Two types of investigation are carried out: to establish what led to an accident, and second, to see what happens next... the idea is to work together,” he said in June.

Bonett later clarified that the bureau’s main task will be to analyse how to make roads safer and recommend changes.

A terrible week made worse by double murder, death after hotel brawl

The bloodbath in Malta was exacerbated with the murder of two men and another who died following a fight.

Two men – Anthony Agius and Dennis Mifsud – were shot dead in the Kunċizzjoni area of Baħrija. Seventy-two-year-old Carmelo Ciantar has been arrested over the crime.

Separately, Roderick Sciortino died on Thursday following a hotel brawl in Mellieħa. His death remains under investigation, with conflicting reports over whether a pre-existing brain tumour contributed to his collapse.