Birkirkara has been revealed as the place people were most likely to get into a traffic accident last year, according to the National Statistics Office.

There were 1,029 incidents in the area, the largest number or reported accidents, followed by Qormi, with 643, and Naxxar, with 547.

The NSO said that traffic accidents and traffic casualties saw an overall dip in 2020. 

Accidents fell by 3,879 cases, or 24.5 per cent for a total of 11,950 cases, while traffic casualties decreased by 28.5 per cent compared to the previous year, with a total of 1,153 casualties.

The largest decrease in accidents was recorded in the northern harbour region, which was also the region to register the most accidents, 4,152 or 34.7 per cent of all accidents in Malta last year. The least number of accidents were in the Gozo and Comino district, where only 719 accidents occurred.

There were 12 fatalities in all as a result of traffic accidents in 2020, 10 of whom were drivers, while the other two were a passenger and a pedestrian.

Of all casualties, the majority, 769, were drivers, of whom 578 suffered slight injuries and 140 who suffered grievous injuries.

In the same year, 147 passengers and 80 pedestrians suffered slight injuries while 25 passengers and 62 pedestrians suffered grievous injuries.

The northern harbour district again accounted for the highest number of traffic casualties, with 341 or 29.6 per cent of all cases occurring there.

The figures were released by the NSO as part of the Regional Statistics Malta 2021 Edition, which included insights into transport, education, demography and tourism, among others.

Traffic contraventions issued by the police increased by 15 per cent to 42,751 as did those given out by community officers (wardens), which rose by 18.4 per cent to a total of 160,223 contraventions.

Transport Malta issued 14,386 contraventions in 2020, the NSO figures show.

For all three entities, the highest amount of contraventions were given in St Paul’s Bay, where 3,113 contraventions were given out by police, 14,589 by community officers and 2,099 handed out by Transport Malta in the locality.

The street where a speed camera caught the most contraveners was in Triq in-Nutar Zarb in Attard, which clocked 7,754 contraventions of a total 43,269 meted out from all speed cameras in 2020.