Maltese couple killed in Sicily crash named as Doris and Manuel Buhagiar

Sicily Highway Horror Claims Two Maltese Lives: Doris & Manuel Buhagiar Remembered

The tight-knit village of Żurrieq woke yesterday to the kind of news that stops conversations mid-sentence: Doris and Manuel Buhagiar, a couple celebrated for their infectious laughter and devotion to family, were killed on Sunday evening in a head-on collision on the A20 autostrada near Messina. They were 58 and 61.

According to Italian highway police, the Buhagiajs’s rented Opel Crossland was struck by an oncoming BMW that veered across the median at kilometre 38. The impact was so violent that emergency crews needed hydraulic tools to free the pair. Medics pronounced them dead at the scene; the 42-year-old German driver, holidaying with his wife and two children, remains in critical condition.

For Żurrieq, the loss is visceral. The Buhagiajs were fixtures at the village festa of St Catherine, always first to volunteer for the doughnut stall and last to leave the marching band procession. “They were the kind of people who greeted you by name across the piazza,” said neighbour Marlene Zammit, clutching a tissue outside the parish church where mourners have begun laying bouquets of white chrysanthemums. “You felt their absence before you even heard why.”

Doris, a retired primary-school teacher at St Margaret’s College, was known for slipping Maltese proverbs into English lessons—“Qatra qatra, tifforma l-baħar,” she would remind restless pupils. Manuel, a former Air Malta technician who later restored classic cars in a Qrendi garage, spent weekends driving Doris along the coast to photograph fishing boats. Sicily had become their sanctuary: twice a year they crossed to Taormina, staying in the same sea-view apartment where the owner always saved them table 14 “because that’s where they got engaged 35 years ago,” according to their daughter Martina.

The tragedy is reverberating beyond Żurrieq. Social media has flooded with the hashtag #RideLikeDorisManu, a nod to the couple’s habit of belting out 80s classics in the car. A Facebook group created yesterday, “F’qalbna dejjem – Doris u Manuel,” has already attracted 12,000 members sharing memories and planning a memorial drive from Malta to Taormina in October. “It’s not just grief,” explained moderator Karl Briffa. “It’s gratitude. They taught us that love is loud, that marriage can still look like teenagers stealing kisses at the bus stop.”

The Maltese embassy in Rome is coordinating repatriation. Consul-General Maria Camilleri confirmed that autopsies will be completed by Thursday, with the bodies expected to arrive at Mater Dei mortuary on Friday morning. Archbishop Charles Scicluna has offered the co-cathedral for a joint funeral, a rare honour that parish priest Fr Joe Borg says “reflects how deeply woven the Buhagiajs are into the fabric of this island.”

Road-safety NGOs have seized the moment to renew calls for stricter cross-border driving tests for holiday rentals. “Every summer we see Maltese families racing to catch the Pozzallo ferry, sometimes exhausted before the journey even begins,” warned David Pace, director of SafeCommute Malta. “Doris and Manuel were careful drivers. If it can happen to them, it can happen to any of us.”

Yet even as statistics and statements swirl, Żurrieq is choosing to remember the couple in colour, not in black-and-white headlines. Tonight the village band will march down Triq il-Kbira playing their favourite tune, “Marċ ta’ Bum Bum,” ending outside the Buhagiajs’ doorstep where candles are already flickering between pots of basil Manuel tended obsessively. Children have tied blue ribbons to the church railings—blue like the Sicilian waters Doris loved to photograph at sunset.

In the words of Manuel’s brother Raymond, spoken through tears on TVM: “They left Malta holding hands, and they arrived in heaven the same way. If that’s not a love story, tell me what is.”