has called for faster speed limits to cut down on road accidents caused by frustrated motorists taking risks when stuck behind slow drivers.

He said he was on the road for a large part of the day.

?One of the biggest problems to orderly passage are slow drivers, that?s a big shock, but people who drive between 20 and 25 miles per hour (32-40 kph), at or under the speed limit, are the biggest menace to the orderly passage of traffic,? he said.

?The problems are caused by other drivers trying to overtake. Why don?t we soberly reflect what the average speed limit is??

He said the limit should be up around 30 or 35 mph (48-56 kph).

?To me that?s a practical solution to the problems on the road. If anyone can?t drive that fast they shouldn?t be on the road.?

Many such drivers are elderly, said Mr. Perinchief, while there are also big trucks and tractors snaring up traffic.

His call got support from who said said it is ridiculous to have a law no one obeys or is expected to obey and it leads to a general decline in respect for the law.

?No one obeys the 20 mph,? he said.

Bermuda Road Safety Council chairman Joseph Froncioni said statistics show a small rise in speeds leads to a massive increase in road accidents, however.

He said Bermuda?s small size would mean little time would be saved by increasing speeds but stopping distances to avoid accidents would need to increase dramatically.

He said at that the Sixth World Conference on Injury Prevention and Control research papers showed increasing the speed on some selected roads led to a phenomenon called ?speed spill-over? where the average driving speed increases on all other roads.

Small increases in speed, of say 10 percent, can lead to an abrupt increase in deaths up to 24 percent.