“For many years, I felt it was egoistic of me to get on with my life. This was the hardest thing. I felt like it was an act of enormous egoism. Why should I live when someone else cannot because of something I did?” John says.

He asks to remain anonymous. He is still picking up the pieces and does not want to rekindle the story that shook his life and that of many others. Before accepting to give an interview, he makes one point clear: “I don’t want to be portrayed as a victim. I am not the victim here.”

But he has a message to give in the wake of the spike in traffic fatalities.

“When I hear of a traffic fatality, I feel for the deceased, of course. But I can’t help wonder how the driver must be feeling, especially if it was not their fault. That was not the case in the accident I was involved in,” he says, in a soft voice.

John agrees that, as suggested by a study published in the Malta Medical Journal, Malta lacks a consistent and professional road safety campaign to address the increasing number of traffic fatalities.

In his view, the campaign, that should come with better enforcement, ought to target anyone who uses roads: motorists, motorcyclists, cyclists, pedestrians and scooter riders.

This year, there have already been 18 traffic fatalities, including nine pedestrians and six motorcyclists. Times of Malta reported a few days ago that the mid-year figure of 15 was the highest in a quarter of a century.