‘One moment it’s quiet, next it’s panic’: the people tackling traffic gridlock

A Transport Malta controller takes a call: a car has just overturned in Luqa.

Instantly, the system shifts into overdrive. An officer on a motorbike, the fastest unit on the road, is dispatched. The control room notifies bus drivers in the vicinity to divert and a tow truck is called in.

Before the Luqa incident is fully resolved, another controller spots a standstill on Aldo Moro Road, a crucial artery. He zooms in using the cameras’ powerful pan and zoom capabilities to find a broken-down car choking the lane.

A TM unit is deployed but, before they arrive, patrolling police intervene, quickly pushing the vehicle to the side. It’s another small, timely victory against the encroaching tide of congestion.

Traffic, parking and public transport frustrations now sit atop the list of Malta’s biggest public headaches – by a substantial margin. To understand the sheer scale of the crisis and the frantic effort to manage it, Times Talk was granted a rare, exclusive peek inside Transport Malta’s operational core during Monday morning’s rush hour.

Cameras around the island feed information on traffic conditions and multiple incidents had to be dealt with to unblock roads. Screenshots: Antoine Farrugia Lauri

What is clear from the frantic episodes we witnessed, each lasting mere minutes, is that officers managing Malta’s roads are busy on the best of days. But on the worst of days, things go wrong literally all the time.

The TM control room in Paola is a nerve centre of controlled chaos, where a team of six controllers, an operations manager and a Malta Public Transport representative constantly monitor a sprawling network.

Footage from 140 cameras streams onto huge screens, complemented by live feeds from publicly accessible private cameras, bus dashboard cams and Google Maps. Every second counts.

“One moment all seems quiet, the next it’s panic mode,” says Jean Claude Attard, deputy chief of enforcement at Transport Malta. He barely finishes the sentence before the adrenaline spikes again and they’re dealing with another traffic-snarling incident.

Attard explains the extreme lengths they go to: if their tow truck gets stuck in the inevitable gridlock, TM officers on motorbikes will escort it through the traffic to speed up the clearance – a critical intervention, as every stalled minute costs the country in productivity and frayed nerves.

A Transport Malta controller takes a call: a car has just overturned in Luqa.

From wrecks to spills

The control room tracks the location of nearly 100 officers on the ground – on foot, on motorbikes and in cars – allowing them to dispatch the closest unit to trouble spots like the Marsa-Ħamrun Bypass, Santa Venera tunnels and Tal-Imgħallaq Roundabout in Qormi.

All the while, they maintain constant, rapid communication with the police, Local Enforcement System Agency (LESA), Civil Protection Department (CPD), Mater Dei Hospital and the Cleansing Department.

As the accidents got worse last Monday, Times Talk joined officers on the ground diving straight into the high-octane reality of road enforcement.

Their first call is to a Paola roundabout, where a massive truck with two blown-out tyres is stalled. The truck’s poor condition is immediately apparent. Officers on foot divert vehicles around the hulk, while enforcement staff inspect the damage.

A more urgent call comes in: a motorcycle has crashed into a car in Żejtun.

The assessment is damning; they impound the truck for a full inspection at TM’s vehicle inspection unit to determine its roadworthiness.

But before the paperwork is done, another, more urgent call comes in: a motorcycle has crashed into a car in Żejtun. The officers must drop everything and race to the accident site.

On the way, a pre-alert comes through – possible injuries, medical assistance needed. Already, a motorbike officer is on the scene, rapidly spraying road markings to record the accident location before the vehicles are urgently pushed to the side, restoring traffic flow.

The whirlwind continues. Minutes later, officers get a call about a concrete spillage from a truck on Aldo Moro Road in Marsa. Sirens blare as officers race towards the slippery, dangerous mess.

Attard insists on speed; wet concrete is a serious hazard. Upon arrival, they make the decisive call to close one lane until the Cleansing Department can arrive and scrub the road clean. The offending truck drives off, but Attard is confident: “We’ve already identified the truck from the cameras and will fine the driver.”

Code red

Briefly, the officers return to a slower task: towing an abandoned, number-plate-less car in Għajn Dwieli, which has sat untouched for over a week despite a legal notice. It’s a moment of administrative necessity before the next emergency.

Traffic, parking and public transport frustrations now sit atop the list of Malta’s biggest public headaches.

Then, the final, most serious alert of the morning: a ‘Red Code’ accident in Mellieħa. A car has overturned and Mater Dei Hospital has issued an “all hands-on deck” order, signalling a potentially serious incident requiring ambulances, police, CPD and Transport Malta.

“It’s not always immediately clear how serious an accident is. We never know what we’ll find until we get there,” Attard says as his colleague in the driver’s seat whizzes through cars in Xemxija on the way to Mellieħa.

“Sometimes we’re told it’s a major accident only to find slight injuries. On other occasions, we find it’s much worse than the initial reports.”

Arriving at the scene, the initial panic subsides slightly. An elderly driver had hit a parked car and flipped his own. Passers-by have managed to free the man from the wreckage and, thankfully, he is uninjured. Doctors on site clear the man and give police and TM the go-ahead to simply push the car upright again.

The morning’s intensity fades but the reality is clear. Transport Malta’s officers are not just managing traffic; they are perpetually firefighting, operating in a relentless loop of speed and adrenaline, fighting to keep the country’s arteries flowing.