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Towards Safer Transport in Malta - Proposal for the setting up of a Transport Safety Investigation Commission

CLOSED CONSULTATION - CONSULTATION CONCLUDED

 
From: Ministry for Transport, Infrastructure and Capital Projects
​Published: 22 December 2022
Running till: 15 February 2023
​Last Updated: ​20 March 2023
CONSULTATION OUTCOME: FINAL REPORT

Original Consultation



1.        Background

Transportation is essential for any economy and Malta is no exception. The Maltese Government is committed to making transportation, whether by land, air, or sea, as safe as possible. Transportation safety investigation practices, specifically within the aviation and maritime domains, have long been established in Malta in accordance with international practice and indeed, independent accident investigation bodies have been created for these domains. Within the context of road transport, however, international practice related to independent investigation is varied and there is no established convention for creating an institutional set-up similar to those in the aviation and maritime domains.

Admittedly the three sectors are rather diverse, with aviation and maritime having an international character, in contrast to land transport which, in Malta’s case, is mostly a national concern. With respect to the latter, the Maltese Government has noted a rise in road fatalities over the course of 2022. During the third quarter of 2022 road fatalities on Maltese roads increased threefold when compared to the quarter in the previous year
(National Statistics Office, 2022). While an element of this increase reflects normalisation of activity following the Covid-19 pandemic, a trend which has been noted elsewhere in Europe, the Maltese Government deems road fatalities to be of great concern. To this end, it is the government’s intention to explore the ways in which this critical issue can be addressed.

The Maltese Government subscribed to ‘Vision Zero’ whose goal is to reduce road deaths to zero by 2050. It is in this context that this White Paper proposes the setting up of a Bureau of Road Safety Investigation as part of a single entity which will be known as the Transport Safety Investigation Commission (TSIC). The Commission will be composed of two other Bureaux responsible for air and maritime safety investigations. Safety investigations carried out by the three Bureaux will not replace investigations intended to establish legal responsibilities. Rather, the three Bureaux will investigate accidents in their respective domains from a systemic perspective. Thus, the scientific approach of giving a meaning to decisions taken by people before the onset of accidents will be introduced in fatal road accident investigations through the establishment of the Bureau of Road Safety Investigation and consolidated in all the three transport domains by the setting up of the TSIC. In the absence of investigation procedures similar to those implemented in the aviation and maritime domains, it will therefore be the TSIC’s role to assist in the establishment of procedures for the safety investigation of fatal road accidents and to consolidate efforts undertaken within the aviation and maritime domains.

2.        Documents


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Received contributions, together with the identity of the contributor, will be published on the Internet, unless the contributor objects to the publication of his/her personal data on the grounds that such publication would harm his/her legitimate interests. In this case the contribution may be published in anonymous form. Otherwise the contribution will not be published nor will, in principle, its content be taken into account.  Any objections concerning the publication of personal data should be sent to the service responsible for the consultation on the following email address: onlineconsultations@gov.mt. 

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In addition, please be aware of:
 
·         Disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act (Chapter 496)
As we are a public authority all documents we hold, including documents related to this public consultation process, may be released following a request to us under the Freedom of Information Act (Chap. 496), unless such request may be subject of an exemption arising from the same Act.

​​www.konsultazzjoni.gov.mt

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