Among the many striking statistics in the SmartRisk study carried out by Dr. Joseph Froncioni and his colleagues into Bermuda's road crashes, one stands out above all others.

That number is the extraordinary level of accidents requiring some form of medical treatment involving 16-year-olds.

For some years, there has been debate over which age group is most likely to be involved in accidents. Now we know that by a massive multiple, newly licensed moped riders are the most at risk.

Dr. Froncioni and the fellow authors of his study, Jennifer Attride-Stirling and Marcelo Ramella, deserve enormous credit for bringing some clarity to this issue.

They also make a range of recommendations in their study, which The Royal Gazette fully reported on yesterday, many of which make good sense.

The recommendations which should be acted on as quickly as possible are those concerning driver education, especially for young moped riders coming on to the road for the first time, along with a graduated licensing scheme which requires good driver records for people to get their full licences.

This is not the first time these recommendations have been made. They should be acted on. In this case, the statistics do not lie.