A 47-year-old motorcyclist was rushed to hospital with his teenage passenger yesterday afternoon after the motorcycle the pair were travelling on collided with a car.

The man, believed to be a local fisherman, suffered serious head injuries and the 16-year-old girl, thought to be his daughter, suffered serious wounds to her arm in the crash on North Shore Road, Devonshire, at 1.20 p.m. Both were in stable condition in the emergency ward of the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital last night. They were expected to be moved to a general ward.

The male driver of the lime-green Rover car which collided with the Yamaha bike was last night in custody helping Police with their inquiries. He suffered superficial injuries.

The cause of yesterday?s crash, near Grace Lane and the Grace Methodist Church, is still being investigated but it came less than a week after a fatal collision on the same road and 11 days after a road death in St. George?s.

The police officer in charge of the Island?s traffic unit last night pleaded with motorists to slow down to prevent further accidents. Inspector Mark Bothello told ?It?s imperative that they slow down before they kill themselves or worse, someone else.

?Please take heed and slow down. There are other contributing factors but speed is a growing problem and everyone has to be concerned. The Island is only 21 miles long. Why are people racing in residential areas? There are kids around.?

He said his unit had issued numerous speeding tickets to drivers in recent weeks thanks to the use of a laser speed detector.

But he added: ?People are not slowing down. It?s very disturbing because it affects a lot of people.?

Bermuda Police Service spokesman Dwayne Caines said yesterday?s crash happened after the motorcycle pulled out from the driveway of a house onto North Shore Road. It collided with the Rover, which was travelling east.

Mr. Caines said: ?At this point we are not going to speculate on the cause of the collision. We are going to reserve the judgment until the evidence has been collected.?

He said Police had a simple message for drivers of all vehicles: ?Speed kills.? He added: ?The consequences of speed are dire. Clearly at this point we are very concerned within the Bermuda Police Service. Over the weekend we had 22 collisions that did not result in injury and seven that did. This has become quite the concern.?

That much was evident from the presence of Police Commissioner George Jackson at yesterday?s crash scene. Bermuda?s top policeman talked with investigators and urged local youngsters on pedal bikes to watch their speed and take care on the roads.

Meanwhile, bystanders stood in scorching temperatures to watch as officers from the traffic enforcement unit took measurements and photographed the mangled vehicles.

One man, a worker at the nearby Peugeot garage, said vehicles regularly sped past along North Shore Road. ?You?d be surprised at the amount of people going nowhere in a hurry,? he said.

North Shore Road was closed from just past Mission Lane in Pembroke to Glebe Lane, Devonshire, after the accident.

Travis Smith, 26, was killed on the same road, on the border of Devonshire and Smith?s, last Thursday after his motorcycle collided with a car.

Mr. Smith, the Island?s sixth road fatality of the year, is believed to have died while travelling home from the funeral service of Derick Paynter, a 17-year-old who suffered fatal injuries after his motorcycle collided with a truck in St. George?s on June 29.

Police statistics released yesterday reveal that there were 28 road accidents caused by drink driving between April and June this year.

There were 95 arrests for drink driving, with 53 motorists failing a breathalyser test, 25 refusing to take one and 15 passing. Men accounted for 88 of the arrests and almost a third of arrests involved drivers aged 22 to 30.

The highest breathalyser reading was 329mg of alcohol in 100 ml of blood ? more than four times the legal limit of 80mg. The oldest person to fail the breath test was a 69-year-old with 193mg in 100ml of blood.

The same period last year saw 128 arrests, with 66 people failing a breathalyser test, 34 refusing to take one and 25 passing.

Witnesses to yesterday?s crash are asked to call P.c. David Ward on 299-4538 or 295-0011.