Traffic tragedies

Yet again we have another fatal victim of a traffic accident, this time at 3am.

What are the government and the police waiting for? More committees to study the problem?

In my opinion, most of these accidents can be eliminated by two simple measures:

1. Breathalyse all drivers involved in an accident, no matter how slight.

2. Change the law for random breathalyser checks to be allowed.

Obviously, enough breathalyser equipment must be available to the police and calibrated frequently.

Stephen Vassallo – Xewkija

Decent neighbourhood

The derelict site.

On April 4, an appeal was made to the St Paul’s local council to do something about the disgusting eyesore, and pavement obstacle, (photo) in Triq l-Imrejkba, Qawra.

A few days later, we received an answer from the council saying that they had passed on the appeal to the police because it was their jurisdiction to locate the owner/s and start procedures.

Seeing that above and around this unholy mess (from construction debris and assorted rubbish, to a five-foot stump relic of a former fig tree – now revived) are people’s residences, it is incredible that things have been allowed to reach this stage of utter abandon. To cap it all, adjoining the driveway and garage there is an abandoned field with no warning for rats to stay away; and they have had all of two years to make this their home.

Six weeks after our appeal, we have no idea what has been achieved so far except that the street and pavements are being rebuilt. And that the trunk in the middle of the picture is now flaunting new, healthy leaves. Presumably, no one was waiting to savour the fruit of this flourishing tree.

The problem is that now that the pavement has been rebuilt this might entail having to uproot the tree and revisit part of the pavement, at extra work and extra expense.

Joseph Agius – St Paul’s Bay

Bernard Grech’s frantic call

The frantic call by the leader of the opposition, Bernard Grech to the commissioner of police, Angelo Gafà to investigate and prosecute the prime minister on the VGH/Steward concession clearly shows that, as next year’s European parliament election draws nearer, Grech’s trepidation of being forced to resign if the PN suffers another defeat is persuading him to make such wild and irresponsible statements. He thinks voters can be so easily duped to believe that the prime minister has committed a criminal act.

Grech is a lawyer, hence, he knows that once he called for the prime minister to be ‘investigated’ he cannot then add, at the same time, that Abela should also be ‘prosecuted’. Any person, including the prime minister and the leader of the opposition, can only be prosecuted if concrete evidence is found that a crime had been committed.

On the Vitals/VGH concession, the judge had made it clear in his sentence that “fraud” had been committed by VGH/Steward against the government. Indeed, after that sentence, Steward accused the court of having been in cahoots with the government against it. So what crime could the prime minister have committed?

Of course, Grech is coming up with these frequent surreal claims because he is convinced that, barring a political miracle, his time as PN and opposition leader is already set for 2024.

Eddy Privitera – Naxxar