Malta insurers back PN plan to criminalise all reckless driving in bid to cut road deaths

# Insurers back PN call for broader measures against all forms of reckless driving

Malta’s insurance industry has thrown its weight behind a Nationalist Party proposal to expand the definition of reckless driving, arguing that current laws are too narrow to tackle the island’s growing culture of traffic impunity.

The Malta Insurance Association (MIA) told *Hot Malta* it “fully supports” PN transport spokesperson Adrian Delia’s call to criminalise all forms of dangerous behaviour behind the wheel – not just the specific offences listed in today’s statute book. The backing comes as new data show that 72% of local underwriters now treat traffic-conviction history as the single biggest factor when pricing motor policies, pushing premiums for repeat offenders up by an average of 38% in two years.

Delia’s private-member’s bill, tabled last week, would replace the existing “reckless or dangerous driving” article with a broader clause punishing “any conduct that creates a foreseeable risk of death or grievous injury”. The change would give police and courts latitude to prosecute everything from tail-gating on the Regional Road to weaving between lanes in Gozo’s winding village cores without having to squeeze each scenario into a narrowly-worded charge.

## A question of culture, not just law

Speaking from the PN’s headquarters in Pietà, Delia framed the reform as a cultural intervention rather than a mere technical fix. “We Maltese have normalised the idea that traffic rules are suggestions,” he said. “If the law only names three or four forbidden stunts, the subliminal message is that anything else is fair game. We want to flip that mindset.”

The argument resonates with insurers who have watched claims frequency climb 5% year-on-year even as vehicles become safer. “We insure 280,000 private cars but record 14,000 reported collisions annually – that’s one in twenty every single year,” MIA president Simon Pisani noted. “The economic cost is €46 million in bodily-injury payouts alone, money that ultimately feeds back into everyone’s premium.”

## Village festa season looms

The timing is sensitive: with parish festa season starting in two weeks, village cores will again fill with pedestrians, parked cars and convoys of youthful drivers circling in souped-up hatchbacks. Last August, a 19-year-old rider died after losing control during a late-night “ċirku” in Żejtun, while three spectators suffered fractures. Witnesses told police the motorcycle was travelling well above the 30 km/h limit, but investigators struggled to prove the rider’s speed because no radar gun was present – a loophole Delia’s bill tries to close by allowing conviction on the basis of dash-cam or CCTV footage alone.

## Community voices

In Valletta’s Is-Suq market, grandmother-of-four Maria Camilleri, 67, welcomed the proposal as she queued for ħobż biż-żejt. “Youngsters treat Strait Street like a racetrack after dark. My grandson walks home from football practice; I’m terrified,” she admitted. “If the law is wider, maybe parents will think twice before handing over the car keys.”

But not everyone is convinced. Transport-law specialist Dr. Ramona Fenech warns that vague wording could overload the courts. “We’ve seen how long it takes to conclude cases under the current system. Give magistrates an open-textured standard and you risk even lengthier arguments,” she cautioned, urging lawmakers to publish sentencing guidelines alongside the bill.

## Government response

Government sources indicated that Transport Minister Aaron Farrugia is “open to dialogue” but wants assurances that minor lapses – such as accidentally clipping a kerb while avoiding a cat – do not attract criminal records. A government counter-proposal is expected to include tiered penalties: on-the-spot fines for low-level negligence, with the broader “risk-based” offence reserved for conduct that endangers life.

## What happens next

The bill will be debated at committee stage in mid-June. Insurers, for their part, promise to sweeten the pot: any driver who completes an approved defensive-driving course could receive an immediate 10% premium rebate, funded by a €2 million industry kitty. “We can’t police the roads, but we can nudge behaviour,” Pisani said. “Safer drivers mean fewer claims – and, ultimately, lower premiums for everyone.”

For a country where the car remains king and the phrase “qed nieħu ċ-ċans” (“taking a chance”) is woven into everyday speech, the coming weeks could decide whether Malta’s streets become safer or stay stuck in first gear.