The recent plea by a seasoned emergency doctor, is as harrowing as it is timely. When frontline professionals — the very people who must pick up the pieces after every fatal or life-altering crash — are driven to speak out publicly, we must understand that we are facing nothing short of a national crisis. Malta’s roads have become killing fields, and unless our collective attitude changes, the bloodshed will continue.

The doctor’s message is painfully clear: we need urgent legislative change. But we also need a cultural and institutional shift — one that prioritizes life over convenience, courage over indifference, and action over excuses.

For too long, road safety enforcement in Malta has focused on what is easy rather than what is necessary. The spotlight is too often placed on minor infractions such as motorists briefly checking their phone to reroute during gridlocked traffic, while truly dangerous behaviours — such as reckless driving, excessive speeding, and driving under the influence — often go unchecked. These are not the occasional mishaps of otherwise careful drivers; they are deliberate acts of endangerment, and they must be treated as such.

The sense of impunity on our roads is palpable. People behave as if rules are optional, because — for the most part — they are. The system is built around leniency, delay, and, far too often, silence. As long as abuse is not met with automatic and consistent punishment, we cannot expect behaviour to change. Drivers must fear the consequences of endangering others, and that fear must be rooted not in abstract laws, but in visible, certain enforcement.

That brings us to another glaring problem: the lack of active, assertive enforcement on our roads. We need more police officers patrolling the roads, yes — but we also need those officers to do their job without fear or favour. Too many times, we have seen enforcement personnel stand by as dangerous behaviour unfolds right in front of them. Whether they are inadequately trained, unwilling to intervene, or deliberately looking the other way, the end result is the same: enforcement is being undermined.

When officers behave like spectators, they send a powerful message — that no one is really watching, and no one will really act. This undermines the entire purpose of road laws and emboldens the very drivers who pose the greatest risk to public safety.

We cannot legislate our way out of this crisis with half-measures and reactive politics. What we need is a bold, coordinated effort that targets the core causes of Malta’s road carnage. That means tougher penalties for reckless driving and DUI, real-time enforcement backed by technology, and a zero-tolerance approach from traffic police. It also means empowering officers with the training, resources, and leadership to intervene when it matters — not after another life has been lost.

It is a hard truth, but a necessary one: if we don’t act now, the next headline won’t just be a statistic — it could be someone we know, someone we love, someone who had every right to make it home.

Enough is enough. Let us stop wringing our hands and start doing what needs to be done. The price of inaction is far too high.