May 2, 2012Dear SirI found it irresistible not to comment, having read articles in your issue of Saturday, April 28, 2012, in relation to the Road Traffic Amendment Act 2012, and the death of Tyaisha Cox.The legislation approved in the House of Assembly on April 27, 2012, does absolutely nothing to eradicate the circumstances which led to the tragic death of Tyaisha. The amendments are but glazing on the existing Road Traffic Act 1947 which contains provisions to deal with all of the supposedly ‘new’ traffic offences mentioned at page three of your said issue. The ‘new’ offences can differ from the existing offences, by way of penalties only. (Incidentally, I have been reliably informed that the existing offence of Causing Actual Bodily Harm to another person by the driving of a vehicle on a road has been deleted under the Road Traffic Amendment Act 2012.) It takes more than the creation of offences and increased penalties to prevent tragedy.Tyaisha’s death resulted from her being struck on a pedestrian crossing outside Purvis Primary School. Why? The reason has not been addressed by the creation of ‘new’ offences. On the evidence of the Prosecution, Melanie Wedgwood was found not guilty of driving without due care and attention on the occasion. Charged under any of the ‘new’ offences, the result would have been the same. Wedgwood did not pull out her car from behind the bus which was stationary; she simply by-passed the bus, an act which was not, and is not to this day, unlawful in Bermuda. The major contributors, in that incident, were the result of there being no bus lay-by and that the bus stop was situated on the pedestrian crossing itself, causing the bus to stop with its ‘nose’ over the crossing. Those were the factors which the legislators ought to have addressed and remedied.When Tyaisha proceeded on the crossing, under the ‘nose’ of the bus, she could not see Wedgwood’s car which was by-passing the bus. What was most significant, at the trial, was the bus driver’s testimony that on seeing Wedgwood’s car alongside his bus, he laid on his horn for about five seconds to warn her to stop, but she (perhaps startled into thinking that the bus was moving off) stepped right out into the path of the car and was struck. Shocked by the aftermath of the tragedy, the powers that be relocated the bus stop several yards ahead of the pedestrian crossing, even before the matter came to trial But, that fundamental bus stop pedestrian crossing flaw still exists at many places around this Island, including crossings at the junction of Loyal Hill and Middle Road, Devonshire; outside the AME Church at Shelly Bay, Hamilton Parish; and in the vicinity of the entrance to Grotto Bay Hotel, Hamilton Parish.Following the outcome of the Wedgwood trial, a large segment of our residents clamoured for the enactment of legislation that would have made it unlawful for motor vehicles to by-pass any bus stationary at a bus stop not located within a bus lay-by. That specific piece of legislation, along with the locating of all pedestrian crossings well back from bus stops/lay-bys, would definitely be the proper steps to be taken to ensure that another tragedy, like Tyaisha’s, never again occurs in Bermuda.I was the magistrate who presided at Miss Wedgwood’s trial. The prosecution’s star witness, in his thorough investigation, unearthed no evidence to substantiate the offence of driving without due care and attention (or any other under the Road Traffic Act).In closing, I discharge, once more, the salvo which I fired at the end of that, my last and final trial: “Before I step down, I implore the appropriate Ministries, the Road Safety Council, and the Corporations of the two municipalities not to ignore or relegate the report of Sgt Lewis to the waste paper basket, but to leave no stone unturned in making such changes as are necessary to bring ALL pedestrian crossings in Bermuda up to the highest international standard. The Road Traffic Act needs to be revised/updated, expanded, toughened, with respect to pedestrian crossings. And, a media publicity campaign is needed to educate, not only motorists, but the whole populace on the matter of pedestrian crossings, so that such a tragedy never again happen.It is 2012; nothing has changed but time.EDWARD KING