This column first appeared in Malta Today

In all my years of attending social events, parties, weddings, receptions, dinners, clubs, bars, you name it, I have rarely heard the phrase, “no more drinks for me, because I’m driving”.

On the contrary, declining an alcoholic drink makes people look at you like some kind of weirdo, an alien, a party pooper. Over the last ten years or so I have gone off alcohol for various reasons, and can have a perfectly fun, enjoyable evening without it. Yet, the strange looks I get when I order water or a soft drink instead would make you think I have sprouted three heads – “oh, come on! Don’t be like that! Have a drink!”  Sometimes it becomes so awkward and such a fuss is made that I relent just to change the subject, while wryly joking that I should not have to succumb to peer pressure at my age.  

It’s very odd: some people almost take it as a personal affront, as if you are silently judging THEM for drinking – which is really not the case.  I always end up being puzzled by this insistence; why should the fact that I don’t want to drink matter so much? Why should I drink to feel that I have “joined in” (u ejja kompli magħna!) if it is going to give me a bad splitting headache the next day?  I have concluded that it’s because we have a social life which is heavily dependent on drinking; in fact the two are synonymous. 

We have such an ingrained drinking culture, such a nonchalant attitude to alcohol, that getting sloshed is evidence that you had a great time the night before. Our colourful vernacular provides the proof and is aways uttered with a certain bragging swagger when talk turns to what people did over the weekend: “sirt ħara”, ‘sirt patata”, “sirt żibel” (rough translation: I ended up like shit, like a potato and like rubbish in that order).   

So far, so good, if lying in bed comatose with a massive hangover on Sunday is the price you are willing to pay. The problem starts when you stumble out of that club, that bar, the village festa or that wedding and then get behind the wheel. God help you if you get in the path of someone who has drunk themselves blind. As for anyone offering to stop after a few drinks in order to be the designated driver, they would probably be mocked mercilessly for such a suggestion.  

These last few weeks, two people were mowed down and killed by drunk drivers: Mildred Azzopardi and Khim Bahadur Pun

According to court testimony from the CCTV footage, “Mildred Azzopardi is seen crossing the road when, just seconds later, a car is seen gaining speed and fatally crashing head-on into the victim. She was flung on the other side of the pavement, over two cars.”

Her husband Alfred Azzopardi is still in the hospital being treated for his serious injuries. A breathalyser test showed that the driver Benjamin Chetcuti was six times above the legal limit. To the disbelief of a horrified public, Chetcuti, who is an AFM soldier,  is out on bail pending his trial because “he has a clean criminal record.”   Yet a woman is dead and her family is shattered to pieces.

In the second fatal traffic accident, Khim Bahadur Pun was doing his job as a Wolf food courier early last Sunday morning. He was hit by a Maserati being driven by a 17-year-old . Worse still, it was a hit and run, as the driver and one of the passengers fled the scene, leaving this poor man dead among the wreckage of his motorcycle. They were both later apprehended and arrested. Another passenger who was found injured close to the scene was also arrested. 

CCTV footage once again provides us with the chilling details: The driver got out of the vehicle and simply walked past the victim without even calling 112.

When he was tested five hours after the crash, the teenage driver’s alcohol level was 40, which means it was even higher at the time of the incident. In this case, his request for bail was denied but his name has not been released because he is under age.  I find these arguments regarding who or who is not a minor completely illogical. We are expected to accept a Mayor who is elected at the absurd age of 16.  And yet this boy, who took the keys and got behind the wheel of a powerful car belonging to his father,  who was drinking heavily and driving under the influence at 5am, who crashed into a father of three who came to Malta to find a better life, and then cold-bloodedly walked past him as he died, is now suddenly not considered an adult. Why should we protect his rights as a minor when in my view he lost those rights with the callous decisions he took that day?  

Ever since this horrific tragedy, rumours have been swirling about the teenager’s name and nationality and at one point the wrong photo and name were published by a ‘journalist’ only to be deleted when the grave error was pointed out.  This is what happens when information is not releasd by the Courts: it just gives rise to speculation and unfounded accusations of innocent people. The more you try to hide someone’s identity the more determined everyone becomes to find out, as they embark on investigations worthy of Inspector Clouseau. 

Yet another drink driving incident which (by the grace of God) did not cause any fatalities also occurred recently. A Somalian man, Abdi Salaan Mahamad crashed his cab into a Santa Venera hair salon and a breathalyser test confirmed that he was well over the drink driving limit. He was denied bail.  The owner was not killed because she happened to be out feeding stray cats at the time.  

And these are just the traffic accidents which make the headlines because of death, injury or close escapes. Apart from drink driving, there is also driving under the influence of drugs which make you think you are invincible. And while smoking a joint might make you more mellow than hyper, it is still affecting your reflexes and ability to operate what is essentially a potential lethal weapon – your vehicle.

Each day we log on to FB and news websites with trepidation wondering what new tragedy our senses will be accosted with.  Yet you step outside and it’s like none of it ever happened. The crazy, careless driving continues unchecked while pedestrians fear for their lives, or just as often, cross the street recklessly a few metres way from a traffic light or zebra crossing.  

Meanwhile several organisations keep coming out with very valid proposals, if anyone cares to take heed.

The NGO Doctors for Road Safety is requesting that the Government 

• 1. Introduce immediate roadside, random alcohol and drug testing;
• 2. Ongoing 24/7, conspicuous police enforcement on the roads, including roadblocks with random stop checks to act as a deterrent for those who want to break the law knowingly.
• 3. Implementation of the Vision Zero approach, which is a comprehensive system looking at all aspects of road safety.

Caritas Malta is also suggesting that the price of alcohol be increased to 75 cents per unit and that the drinking age be raised to 21 years.

Some action has admittedly been taken – the Police have informed us that this week they carried out random checks and road blocks in which they fined 17 drivers for various offences including drink driving. LESA also published statistics for July showing they issued almost 5000 tickets for traffic contraventions.

This is all commendable, of course, but smacks too much of a knee jerk reaction to public criticism.   If all these people have been caught, can you imagine what goes undetected? We must keep applying pressure for daily, continuous harsh enforcement because all our lives depend on it.

One of the biggest drawbacks which is shackling the Police is that by law, they can only administer a breathalyser test based on suspicion that you are drunk or high.

Emergency Medical Consultant Dr Jonathan Joslin has pointed out this anomaly and sums it up succinctly: 

“Reasonable suspicion testing, while useful in certain contexts, is reactive. It only detects impairment once a driver shows visible signs or is already involved in risky behaviour or a crash. With random roadside testing, every driver knows they can be stopped and tested anywhere, at any time, without having done anything to draw police attention. This creates a strong preventive effect, discouraging impaired driving before it happens.”

It is crucial for this law to be changed as soon as possible. We cannot keep seeing photos of cars twisted into an unrecognisable pretzel of metal and steel with dead bodies covered by white sheets lying nearby.  We cannot keep seeing, as we did last week, more heartbreaking poignant photos of a lone tennis shoe on the side of the road, belonging to a man who was killed just because some kid wanted to impress his friends with a drunken joyride.