Two road deaths in the past ten days have brought the problems on the Island?s roads back into the public eye.

The death toll for the year now stands at 11. If it continues this way in the last three months of the year, another three or possibly four people will have been added to the list by December 31.

Back in May, eight people had died in a little over four months, and this newspaper ran their pictures on the front page. We also ran a picture of the blood-covered road where Eugene Christopher died, in the hope that it would calm drivers down.

The alarming rate of deaths has slowed since then, but it?s hard to be grateful when three more people have been added to the long list of people whose lives have been cut short in this way.

There?s not much more that can be said about it either; it?s all been said before.

Still, in the hope that the message will get through, here we go again:

In a place the size of Bermuda, there is no logical reason to speed. The time saved is minuscule and the higher the speed, the greater the likelihood that a collision will be fatal.

It is madness to drink and drive. Anyone who says that alcohol ? or drugs, for that matter ? does not affect their reactions is lying.

If you want to kill yourself by driving dangerously, maybe that?s your prerogative. But it is not the choice your friends and family would like you to make, it?s certainly not the choice passengers in your car or on your bike would make and it is definitely not the choice that the person you hit and kill would make. If you survive, and someone is killed as a result of your actions, expect to do time ? when you will have plenty of opportunity regret your stupid behaviour.

It is sad but true that it is unlikely that Bermuda will ever see a year when no one is killed on the roads. But if drivers took proper care, obeyed the rules of the road and stopped treating the roads like a Formula One track, the death toll would be dramatically reduced and lives would be saved. That?s not much to ask.

Once again, the football season has been marred by violence, throwing doubt over the ability of fans to simply enjoy a game of football with their families.

While the latest bout of violence occurred in a club?s parking lot ? and therefore theoretically outside of the Bermuda Football Association?s ability to control it, there is no doubt that it will further damage the already tarnished image of football.

It also comes in spite of some efforts by Government and the BFA to reduce violence. So far, the message is not getting through.

Some years ago, when England was undergoing a much worse spate of soccer violence, the British Government put a stop to it by demanding increased policing at games, forcing clubs to install all-seater stadiums instead of the traditional terraces, and cracking down on individuals who committed violence and clubs who condoned it through their own inaction. The result in England is that fans can take their families safely to matches and football is richer and more successful than ever.

It is time for Bermuda to devise similar standards and to make the BFA and the clubs put them in place.

It will involve expense and changes in the matches? atmospheres that will draw protests from clubs and fans.

But true fans don?t get into fights in parking lots and they don?t invade pitches.

Football?s choice is stark. It can continue to fail to protect its true fans, watch gates dwindle and end up having to put in even more draconian measures to save the game ? or it can act now.