Triathlete Lena Sammut was cycling as part of her routine training last Monday morning when she hit a double speed bump on a downhill road and was catapulted off her bike, breaking her collarbone.
Taken to hospital by ambulance and suffering from mild concussion, she later underwent surgery to repair the broken bone with a metal plate.
The first speed bump, located on a bend in the area known as Tas-Santi in Mġarr, had been there for some time. The second, however, was a recent addition to a road frequently used by cyclists practising hill-riding.
“One speed bump can knock your stability – but a second one straight after will make you lose control on a bike,” said Lena, a 38-year-old lawyer.
The double speed bumps in Mġarr.
This, she said, is just one of a series of “death traps” that cyclists face on Maltese roads.
Speed bumps, she noted, are not ideal for cyclists, although some are designed with gaps that allow bikes to pass safely through them. Cycle lanes also present challenges, often littered with debris such as broken glass or blocked by parked cars.
As Lena descended the hill while training with her husband, she was aware – only through social media – that a double speed bump had been installed. But she found no warning signs on the approach. When she finally reached the bumps, she “shot forward”.
“I barely remember anything,” she says. Her helmet was damaged and, besides the fracture to her right collarbone that required surgery, she sustained grazes to her nose, lip and chin, in addition to bruising to her hip.
The issue has been highlighted by Etienne Bonello, technical director of the Malta Cycling Federation, who warned cyclists on social media about the installation of two consecutive sleeping policemen on the blind downhill corner at Tas-Santi.
The damaged helmet
“I have been training and racing for the past 30 years with extensive international participation with the national team and never have encountered such hazards of double sleeping policemen,” he said.
He tagged the Mġarr local council and Transport Malta to his social media post, which drew significant attention from fellow cyclists. Many shared similar concerns or reported accidents that had already occurred, he said.
Mġarr mayor Paul Vella explained that the second speed bump was installed as a safety measure after reports of cars going too fast on that road. In a recent incident, a resident’s dog was run over.
He said the measure had brought relief to neighbours, although he acknowledged that “you can’t make everyone happy”.