A 16-year-old boy who was injured after falling off a bridge in the Buskett woodland on Thursday evening has called for better safety in one of Malta’s most popular recreational open spaces.

Sitting in a hospital bed where he is recovering from a fractured pelvis and wrist, the teen recounted how it was the timely intervention of his young friends which saved his life.

His parents, sitting beside him, ask for the victim’s identity to remain anonymous since he is a minor, but they want to voice their concern about safety in the area.

On Thursday, he and his friends went for an end-of-summer picnic before starting Sixth Form this week.

Around 7.45pm, the teens started walking towards the bus stop on the main road, from where they were being picked up by parents.

The boy was going to get a lift home with the parents of a friend, who was on crutches because he had a broken toe. As they started walking to the bus stop it got dark.

“There was no light whatsoever and I wanted to make sure we were going the right way. I had seen a street lamp and walked towards it to make sure we were heading towards the main road. I took out my phone to put on the torch since I couldn’t see anything. As far as I could tell, I was on a normal road: there were even shrubs and bushes. As I took out my phone, I stepped off the bridge.”

The victim took a step in the wrong direction and fell down a six-metre drop.

The bridge where the accident happened.

“At first I thought I had tripped. Then I realised this is a fall. I had no idea where and how far I’m going to fall. Luckily, there was soil, hard soil. I literally bounced. I hit the ground twice,” he says.

“I started panicking… I started shouting for help,” he adds. At first his friends didn’t believe him, but they soon realised this was serious.

The friends immediately went to his rescue. Two of them, including the one in crutches, climbed down the slope using their mobile phone torches to guide them.

One of them had first aid skills and started asking him questions to ensure he was conscious and alert before putting him in recovery position. His friends called the ambulance and the victim’s parents. Meanwhile, the other two friends spread out to different points to signal to the ambulance.

When the ambulance arrived, paramedics requested the help of civil protection department rescuers to lift him out before he was taken to hospital.

Jumping to conclusions

The next morning, he woke up to hear his friends telling him about the comments accompanying news stories, with many speculating it was a prank gone wrong even when though they had no evidence to back their claims.

“They made it sound like my friends pushed me off a bridge when, in reality, it was the complete opposite. It was a flaw in the construction of the bridge which caused the incident and my friends who saved my life.

“It looked like a regular road. I was walking and I just fell down… They need to correct safety around this bridge. I want to make sure it doesn’t happen again to someone else,” he said.

The boy was meant to start Sixth Form on Monday but his friends have already visited him at hospital to keep his spirits up:

“They brought me this balloon that says: ‘New baby girl’ and started playing the song ‘I’m still standing’,” he smiles.