Police appealed to the public to steer clear of road traffic investigation scenes after a minibus drove through crash debris yesterday.

Inspector Robert Cardwell, head of the Bermuda Police Service’s roads policing unit, warned the driver could hinder the work of collision investigators.

Mr Cardwell said: “It is imperative that collision scenes remain as sterile as possible.

“In this context, that means that the scene remains as it was immediately after the collision.

“This is crucial to the police collision investigators who will reconstruct the collision by taking a series of measurements of everything that is part of the scene.

“This includes the vehicles themselves and also all the parts of those vehicles that have broken off.

“The collision investigator applies these measurements to certain mathematical formulas where the positioning of vehicles, the forces at work contributing to the collision and speed can be calculated.

“It is disappointing that a minibus driver, as reported, ignored efforts of bystanders who were attempting to keep the scene sterile.”

The incident happened after a silver grey minibus was stuck behind a queue of traffic in the eastbound lane of North Shore Road near the junction with Radnor Road in Hamilton Parish.

The delay was caused after a car and a motorcycle were in collision which left the 16-year-old girl motorcyclist injured in the road.

The male driver of the minibus mounted the sidewalk to get past the line of traffic and drove over the debris near the injured woman before he turned right on to Radnor Road.

The incident happened at about 2.10pm on Saturday.

Mr Cardwell added: “While no offence has been committed, it is very inconsiderate behaviour not only to the work that will be done by police, but could also jeopardise justice being realised for a victim.

“Had a police officer been present and was directing traffic and that officer’s signals were ignored, then a traffic offence would have been committed.

“We are very conscious of the fact that our various driver services are trying to make a dollar, but we do rely on the likes of our minibus and taxi operators to be true road safety ambassadors and lead by example.

“The example set in this instance is not a good one and is not condoned.”

A police spokesman said the injured girl was “stable” in a general ward at the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital.

Police have appealed for witnesses.