Branches and cables over the roads make trips ‘an obstacle course’ for double-deckers

Double-decker bus drivers and tour operators have long been worried about low-hanging tree branches and electricity cables, saying that avoiding them can feel like “driving an obstacle course”. “This is something that will be on your mind when you are driving. You think: God forbid I am not keeping a sharp lookout and a branch hits someone or something,” one driver said. Sightseeing bus operators contacted yesterday told the Times of Malta Monday’s accident shocked them, describing it as a “worst nightmare scenario”. One operator said a few years ago they had expressed their concerns to the authorities with regard to electricity cables handing from buildings. “You can have a cable that is dislodged from its position and then hangs low from a building. Our buses are four metres high, just like a trailer. We have had incidents where trailers and even tourist buses pulled live electricity cables along with them. It can be extremely dangerous,” the operator said. Asked whether any guidelines existed on how to navigate trees and other hazards on the road, operators said that when double-decker buses had been introduced to the island, some sort of guidelines had been drafted by the...