?Magistrate Edward King is right in saying the Road Traffic Act is woefully lacking?, the Transport Minister Dr. Ewart Brown admitted last night.

Dr. Brown said the Bermuda Road Traffic Act was currently under review and has been since before the fatal accident on St. Mary?s Road in 2003.

?It?s old. We need a whole new Act,? he stated. However, he said, this wouldn?t happen overnight.

In his judgment in the Melanie Wedgwood case yesterday, Mr. King said he had thoroughly perused the Bermuda Road Traffic Act 1947, and its Traffic Code, and found that it was woefully lacking with respect to provisions creating offences and regulations (codes) applicable to pedestrian crossings and the obligations of motorists with regard to such crossings.

The Road Traffic Act states that one is never to overtake at a pedestrian crossing.

Yet it also states that before overtaking a bus which is about to stop, or is stationary, motorists need to watch carefully to see if passengers are about to board or alight and go slow or stop as the circumstances require.

It also states that ?a failure on the part of any person to observe any provision of the Traffic Code shall not of itself render the person liable to criminal proceedings of any kind (unless such failure is specifically constituted an offence by any provision of this Act) but any failure to observe the provisions of the Traffic Code may in any proceedings, whether civil or criminal and including proceedings for an offence under this Act, be relied on by any party to the proceedings as tending to establish or negative any liability which is in question in these proceedings?.

Mr. King said Wedgwood was charged with driving without due care and attention, not with failure to give precedence to a person on a pedestrian crossing ? there being no such offence under the existing Road Traffic Act.

He said English case law is replete with cases involving the failure of motorists to according precedence to pedestrians on crossings.

?The absence of such a provision in Bermuda Road Traffic Act is a disastrous short-coming,? he said.

Under Section 27(3) of the Road Traffic Act 1947, ?a person driving a vehicle shall (a) when approaching a pedestrian crossing, proceed at such a speed that the vehicle can be stopped before reaching the crossing unless there is no pedestrian on the crossing?.

While Section 24(4) provides: ?Any person who contravenes subsection (3) commits an offence against this Act?. Mr. King said Wedgwood was not driving at such a speed that her vehicle could not be stopped before reaching the pedestrian crossing.

The burden, he said, was on the Crown to establish, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the Defendant committed the offence with which she was charged ? that she drove her vehicle on road without due care and attention thereby committed an offence against Section 37(1) of the Road Traffic Act.

According to evidence, Mr. King said he could not find her guilty of this offence.

Mr. King implored Ministries, the Road Safety Council and the Corporations of the two municipalities to leave no stone unturned in making such changes as necessary to bring all pedestrian crossings in Bermuda up to the highest international standard.

?The Road Traffic Act needs to be revised and 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 happens.? he said.

Dr. Brown agreed, adding that besides reviewing and amending the Road Traffic Act, the Ministry had upgraded many pedestrian crossings and had also ordered buses with ?flashing lights? ? similar to those used on school buses in the United States to warn people not to pass the bus when they?re activated.

One of the first pedestrian crossings to be upgraded was the one in question in St. Mary?s Road. Pedestrian crossings at schools across the Island have received the same scrutiny.