Bermuda spends in excess of $1 million every year on its serious road crash victims for just one week of treatment in the Intensive Care Unit.

The shocking figures were released by chairman of the Road Safety Council Dr. Joseph Froncioni, who said the Island needed to get a grip on the growing number of road collisions in order to save lives - and cash.

He said, on average, there were 40 serious head injuries caused by smashes every year and those people required admittance to the Intensive Care Unit of King Edward VII Memorial Hospital.

The orthopaedic surgeon, who operates on many road victims, said it cost $5,000 to treat just one person for one day in the specialist unit, so if every one of the 40 patients remained there for just five days, the bill would reach $1 million.

"These are just the costs for people who are in the Intensive Care Unit for five days, but many people require longer than that, and most are in hospital for a lot longer, so the costs increase," said Dr. Froncioni.

And he said about ten percent of these head injury patients ended up with a permanent disability, a certain percent required custodial care, and a further group were unable to return to the same level of work.

"The loss to society of these productive individuals for that single injury must be in the many millions per year," said the chairman.

"Not only is health care and insurance premiums affected, but families are affected, businesses affected, and so on.

"The impact is tremendous."

Dr. Froncioni said he believed the biggest cause of head trauma among collision victims on the Island was due to inferior, old or unsecured helmets.

And he said for that reason he was pleased to see that Acting Senior Magistrate Carlisle Greaves had increased the fine for not wearing helmets properly from $50 to $250.

"If increasing the fine for not fastening a helmet properly prevents ten injuries of this kind on our roads, well in just five days of what would have been intensive care treatment, we have saved $250,000.

"Wearing your helmet properly is one of the most cost effective, protective devices, and is the most important safety device on this Island.

"So I think increasing the fine for those who do not fasten them properly will encourage more people to abide by the law. Young people will not want to be fined $250."