Bermuda suffered its first two road deaths of the year this past weekend, as 17-year-old Miguel Franco and 48-year-old Rudell Smith were killed in unrelated crashes on Friday and Saturday.

There were two other serious accidents this weekend, which fortunately did not result in fatalities. In one, a motorcylist was injured when he was in collision with a car, which he was apparently trying to overtake as it was turning. In the other, a car driver was hurt when she was in collision with a parked tractor trailer.

These deaths and collisions are a timely reminder that the Island's roads continue to be a very dangerous place to be.

Public awareness campaigns and previous fatalities seem to have little impact on drivers on our crowded roads.

And it still boggles the mind, although there is no evidence in any of these cases that this occurred, that people feel the necessity to break the speed limit when the distances travelled in Bermuda are generally short and speeding will rarely save much time.

What is also noteworthy is that bike riders and passengers seem to be the most likely to be seriously injured in crashes.

Car riders are protected by their vehicles, and while this does not guarantee safety, it is a fact that bike riders – who have virtually no protection apart from their helmets – are almost always injured or killed in collisions.

This is not to suggest that motorbikes should be banned, but there is a good case to be made that training and testing of motorbike riders needs to be made much more rigorous and that bike riders need to take much more care on the roads.

Dodging and weaving around traffic, overtaking on blind corners, speeding in groups are all practices that put the rider, not to mention other road users, at risk.

Although Project Ride clearly has helped a great many young riders, the fact that it is not required for young people coming on to the road for the first time is a disgrace.

Older riders too need to be tested more rigorously. Although the test for auxiliary cycles and motorcycles is tougher than it was years ago, it still lacks a road test and leaves much to be desired.

There is very little that can be said to the families of Miguel Franco and Rudell Smith that will be of much solace now.

But the community has to be asked when it is going to put a stop to the senseless waste on the roads. Miguel Franco had everything to live for when his life was lost. Mr. Smith was in the prime of his life, with friends and family who had enjoyed and benefited from his company for 48 years. But he cannot have expected his life to end on Saturday night.

Who knows what these men could have contributed in the years to come? We will never know now, but we can ensure that their deaths were not pointless if we come together to stop this madness.