in which he swerved and hit a wall, Dave Miller became the Island's 13th road fatality of the year. His wife, a pillion passenger, remains in hospital being treated for her injuries.

It is not yet clear what caused the accident involving Mr. Miller, but the fact remains that 13 people have died so far this year on our roads with no end in sight.

In the meantime, examples of appalling driving continue to occur every day.

Yesterday, a taxi driver was jailed for running over a man after a dispute about the fare. And anyone you talk to will be able to recount a recent example of dangerous driving. It's amazing that the death toll is not higher.

In August, we published an editorial saying: "Clearly there is public alarm about traffic conditions on the roads. Despite the concern, despite accidents, despite the inconvenience to visitors and despite promises, not very much happens.'' We proposed then that driver education be started at an early age and that a Citizen's Road Watch Programme with a three-digit "hot line'' be established so that road users could report other dangerous road users.

We also called for impounding of vehicles as a real deterrent to young people, and said a traffic squad, removed from the Police Service but including the traffic wardens, could be the answer to improved driving conditions.

Since then there has been some comments about the need for more public awareness advertising, but we have not seen anything yet. Beyond that, there has been nothing. And the death toll keeps rising.

The United Bermuda Party's platform says little about road safety. Under transport it promises to implement its Transport 2000 report, acknowledges that increased road use has "caused concern about our personal safety'' and promises to expand and make public transport easier to use, to expand the Project Ride initiative and to install static speeding detection cameras around the Island -- equipment promised years go.

The UBP is right in that the long-term solution to improving road safety is to reduce traffic use on our clogged roads. Many members of the public knew that years ago. In the short term, something needs to be done to slow the traffic down and reduce the death toll.

The PLP has said little; it has not come up at the party's press conferences and when the Transport 2000 report was debated in Parliament this year, Shadow Minister Dennis Lister's only reported comment on road safety was that people walking at night should wear reflective clothing; a wise precaution, but hardly a total solution.

Instead of endless arguments about timings of debates and the merits and demerits of e-commerce, our politicians should come up with some real solutions on road safety -- before anyone else dies.