Let me start with an immediate disclaimer. My sister was involved in a horrendous car crash nearly 30 years ago.
An uninsured man speeding recklessly hit my sister’s car head-on as he was overtaking at a blind bend and got into her lane. My sister died a few days later. Thanks to our roads and our idiocy, my sister was sent to heaven way before her due time.
Death by cars is not a new thing. When Victor Calvagna died, there was a national feeling of horror and sadness. But, beyond setting up some worthy projects and naming a hospital ward in his honour, what did his death achieve? What was the end result of the outpouring of sadness that accompanied his untimely and horrific end?
I’m not even sure if the magisterial inquiry was finalised and if anyone was found to be at fault.
What I wish would happen is a national post-mortem. Not an autopsy on his body to establish fault for his death: what I wished and still wish to happen is a proper appraisal of anything connected to cars, traffic and life.
Why am I writing now, so long after these two incidents? What has got me, at last, to write and plead with the authorities that enough is enough and that something needs to be done? Something needs to be done at once. And thoroughly. Not just a report to be laid aside and left to mould and rot away in a file.
What has made me jot down these thoughts today, long after my sister’s death and months after Calvagna’s demise, is actually a silly incident.
I was having a coffee in Sliema, at the top of Bisazza Street. For all intents and purposes, this street should be, as far as I know, pedestrianised. However, cars and other motorised vehicles can still be seen driving down this street all the time. If, at least, these infernal machines were driven at a snail’s pace, I might find them acceptable.
On the day in question, a race marshal was directing the traffic coming down from Tigné Street on its way to Tower Road. She was making sure no cars drove out when the participants in a triathlon approached Bisazza Street.
Suddenly, some LESA (Local Enforcement Systems Agency) motorcycles turned up, their lights flashing and sped down at breakneck speed.
I instinctively put my hand out to caution them against going so fast. I was conscious that, further down, in the middle of the street, there could have been children, people who take long to move out of danger or just normal people who believe that this is pedestrianised thoroughfare.
We need to give back the country to pedestrians- Victor Calleja
Imagine them being confronted by these men on wheels, these Mad Max wannabes on speed. The motorcycles carried on regardless and disappeared. I had forgotten about them when, out of the blue, the leader of the pack drove close to me and yelled at me.
“Did you have anything to tell me?” He, this hero on a big motorcycle, had driven back to come and confront me with a slanging match. His aggression was palpable and people around us confirmed that the way he spoke to me and to my wife was appalling. Not for a minute did he try to say that the entire road was being monitored to make sure nobody was in their path before they swarmed down.
Yet, this is the way of the world on our tiny island. Aggression and speed are our way of showing we are a superior race. Before we realise that people are more important than vehicles, we will remain living a daily nightmare where human lives are considered inferior to the needs of cars and all other mechanised monsters.
We need to stop building these ever-bigger roads with bigger flyovers and we need to give back the country to pedestrians, to slow walkers and to cyclists. Or, at least, we need to start a process where people are given due importance over the mighty car.
Malta has become a paradise of aggression, danger and power-crazed imbeciles.
vc@victorcalleja.com