A bad weekend on the roads has brought a further pledge that road safety education and tougher sanctions against dangerous drivers will be a priority for 2006.

Hospital staff were kept busy with seven road injury incidents at the weekend, which also included the 13th road death of the year when a motorbike being ridden by guest worker Ricardo Evangelista collided with a utility pole near Dockyard early on Saturday morning.

Police reported that there were also six people arrested on suspicion of drink-driving and 17 damage-only road collisions.

With the Christmas party season now in full swing the road safety message is being stepped up and taxi drivers in particular are being asked to play their part by making themselves available when people most need them to get home safely. Transport Minister Ewart Brown said he remembered the year he became minister in 1998 when there were 17 road deaths that year. "We needed to intensify the road safety programme after 1998, that was a bad year. We intensified it and the number of accidents came down," said Dr. Brown, who is today meeting with Road Safety Officer Roxanne Christopher to discuss the festive season road safety message.

It is his intention to intensify the road safety programme in the new year and one aim is to strengthen the Project Ride programme, which teaches youngsters how to ride auxiliary cycles and motorbikes safely.

"We want to move it into the curriculum for schools and hopefully make it mandatory so that you have to have a certificate of competence to ride before you can use a motorbike on the road," said Dr. Brown.

He said there would be an intensifying of programmes to educate the public about road safety and he called on taxi drivers to help by operating at hours when people were most likely to need to order a ride home after going to a party or celebration.

This was a view shared by Dr. Joseph Froncioni, the outgoing chairman of the Road Safety Council, who said: "I think there is a will out there not to drink and drive, but there's a problem when you are at a private home and too often taxis are not available or the wait is too long and then people end up doing the dumb thing (driving their car)."

Dr. Froncioni said: "We encourage people not to drink and drive but that is sometimes difficult to do in Bermuda. My plea goes out to the taxi industry to make themselves available when people are out celebrating and need accessible taxi transport."

He realised this would often be in the early hours of the morning.

"We would encourage taxi drivers to make themselves available when people need them most, that would help minimalise drink driving," he said.

'Please, don't drink and drive this holiday': Page 9