Royal Gazette can reveal.

For full-speed-ahead Road Safety Council chairman Delcina Bean Burrows has signed up lawyer Phil Perinchief to help the group close loopholes in the law.

Ms Bean Burrows said: "We are pleased he has been appointed as our legal advisor in the wake of recent court rulings which have come forward in connection with impaired driving.'' She added: "We expect him to assist us in having tough legislation in connection with road crashes and the impact they have on road users.'' Ms Bean Burrows explained: "We will need the expertise of a competent lawyer and we feel Mr. Perinchief will fulfill a vital role which previous Councils have been lacking.'' She declined to specify court cases which had caused the Road Safety Council concern.

But, earlier this week, Wayne DeRoza was fined a total of $400 and banned from driving for a year after admitting driving with excess alcohol in his blood.

The offence was discovered after DeRoza's truck was involved in a fatal crash with a taxi in November last year. Taxi driver Clifford Darrell died in the Southampton smash.

Ms Bean Burrows said: "Without pointing the finger at any one case, we are very concerned in general that if a person is convicted of vehicular homicide, which may be impaired driving or some other thing, we want to know that we, as a Council, have everything we can to try and get legislation in place which will stick.'' She added: "At present, there so many loopholes in the law, a competent lawyer can find his way through them easily.'' Ms Bean Burrows said she wanted to ensure the Council's data base on crashes was as full as possible and that she hoped to gain access to Police crash investigation reports before drawing up an accurate hit-list of topics to address.

She added she hoped to link that to an injury data base so the Council had all the relevant information at its fingertips.

Ms Bean Burrows said: "On top of that, we want a lawyer who will help us plug up every single loophole and address every problem we uncover.

"We want to make sure that justice is served in every aspect -- all in an attempt to make our roads safer.'' And she warned: "Our intent is to take a tough approach to legislation -- we have to move that way. We wanted the best advice and that's why we went after Mr. Perinchief.''