together to improve safety for visitors using the Island's roads.

Owners met with Ms Laura Smith, the Road Safety Officer, following a number of complaints about limited instruction given to visitors before they ride certain cycles.

And Ms Smith has called for training to be standardised for all livery firms on the Island.

She said: "Some livery firms are doing a great job but we need others to get up to the level of the best. Tourists do not know which are the best firms.

"We are looking at ways of making the industry more standard in the instruction that they give. We want to make it a more even playing field.

"We can produce pamphlets and information but it is only human how you tell somebody about it. There are differences.'' Ms Smith says livery owners are now looking at suggestions put forward during the meeting to improve safety.

She said: "We are not asking for our tourists to sit down in a classroom for an hour. We realise that they want to get out and see the Island as quickly as they can.

"I was very pleased with the response of the livery owners who agreed that increasing safety standards was going to improve business for them, rather than believing that more regulations would hurt business.'' Transport Minister the Hon. Ralph Marshall has asked the Road Safety Officer to investigate why visitors have been involved in accidents.

She said: "It could be that they cannot handle their bikes, have not been properly instructed or they could have been driven off the road by Bermudians who are driving badly.

"It will be interesting to investigate why these accidents happen.''