If you let your drunk friend drive home, you could end up regretting it for the rest of your life.

That message was hammered home last night by a young woman who has lost four friends in four years to fatal road crashes. She was speaking at a Road Safety Council meeting at Heritage Worship Centre.

Melissa Looby, 20, told the room of about 40 people that she does not want anyone to go through what she's been through, particularly with the death of her closest buddy Shellee Smith three years ago.

Miss Looby was off the Island when 18-year-old Miss Smith was killed — and there was no suggestion that the victim had been drunk driving.

But her heartache has made her more sensitive to the dangers on Bermuda's roads — where nine people have lost their lives in the past few weeks — and prompted her to join safety group ROLO (Remembering Our Loved Ones).

Last night, she told the meeting: "I remember going out and hearing someone say: 'When so-and-so goes home tonight, don't let them take their keys.'"

That person then explained she had once let someone drive home drunk, and the decision culminated in a fatal accident.

"If you were to see the person who let that person drive home — to this day she will never get over it," she said.

"She let that person drive home and that person is not with us today."

Of her loss, Miss Looby said: "Something as simple as choosing a picture for a funeral notice — it's not as easy as you think.

"Ever since she died, I do not want anyone to have to go through what her mother did."

King Edward VII Memorial Hospital's director of emergency services Edward Schultz, one of the panellists taking questions from the audience, said most road fatalities were a result of people driving when impaired by drugs or alcohol.

"These are preventable deaths — it's something we have to do something about," said Dr. Schultz.

Road Safety Council chairman Christopher Johnson said the three main factors in accidents were drunk driving, speeding and inexperience.

Road Safety Officer Roxanne Christopher said good habits needed to be taught to youngsters even before they're old enough to drive and that more rigorous training programmes would be put in place soon.

Other suggestions throughout the evening included cracking down on cell phone use by motorists, putting more Police officers on patrol, on-the-spot breathalysing and advertising campaigns in the daily paper, "which everyone reads".