A clarification

January 29, 2009

Dear Sir,

In Tuesday's Royal Gazette, your editorial on road safety concluded that it was "wrong to oppose the use of graphic images in advertising and posters" and "wrong to quibble about details of the campaign when what is needed now is an all-out offensive on all fronts". The editorial appears to have been prompted by a story the previous Saturday headlined "UBP criticizes graphic road accident adverts". With the greatest of respect, the United Bermuda Party did not criticise the ads, but we did state that there was "little, to no evidence that this would work in deterring bad driving" and that "experts I have spoken to have said that graphic images do not deter people from driving poorly".

This may seem like splitting hairs, but the editorial appears to have been based on the misleading headline rather than the actual content of my statement. By way of clarification, my remarks regarding the graphic images were really that of all the things that are proven to work, the use of graphic images has the least evidence that it reduces road deaths and accidents.

The United Bermuda Party agrees with your point that "what is needed now is an all-out offensive on all fronts", but our concern remains that an all-out offensive should be the implementation of absolute, proven measures such as those outlined by the United Bermuda Party and Smart Risk, a charity co-founded by the former Road Safety Council Chairman Dr Froncioni.

Ironically, the very day the campaign began I personally witnessed a motorbike rider in a road traffic accident in which a 19-year-old girl slammed on her brakes, flew over her handle bars and the motor bike landed on top of her. Fortunately her helmet stayed on and it would appear she suffered from a broken ankle. The accident appeared to have been the result of tailgating and poor driving habits.

The point that should have been taken from my statement was that the United Bermuda Party supports many of the initiatives recently proposed by the Road Safety Council including random sobriety testing, ensuring the re-education of offenders and a graduated licensing scheme. In the same article, I expressed the United Bermuda Party's support of the recent efforts by the Bermuda Police Service to increase the traffic division and encouraged the police to maintain this presence on a long-term basis.

Over the last number of years, the United Bermuda Party has made numerous proposals for road safety legislation, including the introduction of speed cameras, a points system, the extension of Project Ride, more traffic calming measures such as speed bumps, increased road lighting (solar-powered), the installation of cat's eyes in centre lines, the redesign of crosswalks for safer pedestrian crossing, more anti-skid surfaces, greater commitment of resources and manpower to the police traffic division, later hours for the running of public buses and complete enforcement of existing traffic laws, including zero tolerance for driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs.

Each one of these proposals has been thoroughly tested in other jurisdictions and has been proven to reduce road accidents and deaths significantly. My article in the January 6th edition outlined some of the amazing statistics in road death reductions when some or all of the aforementioned are implemented.

For those who want to hear more about road safety, I invite you to attend a seminar this Monday – February 2 – at Mt. St. Agnes Academy commencing at 5.30 p.m. where Dr Froncioni will present shocking statistics on road accidents in Bermuda and what can be done to halt this epidemic. You need to hear this.

SEN. MICHAEL J. FAHY

Shadow Minister for Transport