A veteran airline pilot once remarked that travelling through the skies at hundreds of miles an hour, high above the Earth, was not as challenging as getting from his home to the airport. He explained that, in his vehicle on the highway, safety depended on being alert for some motorists who choose to flirt with danger by ignoring traffic rules. This often has devastating results before the police can intervene.

The pilot went on to say that once in the cockpit with his flight crew, he could take comfort in knowing that for his aircraft, and its passengers, highly trained teams on the ground could monitor his flight and others in the sky to maintain a high standard of safety for all. Modern technology plays a key role in this, and aviation officials globally are constantly seeking ways to make highways in the sky safer, especially when there are thousands of flights daily.

With narrow roads here in Bermuda, curves everywhere, and a large number of cars, trucks, buses, bikes and other types of vehicles travelling about in limited space, the potential for mishap remains constant. This despite never-ending appeals from police and road safety officials to exercise greater caution. There are no statistics for close calls and they occur every single day, creating problems for those attempting to comply with rules for safety.

Speeding and overtaking, even on blind corners, is a problem that clearly shows reckless attitudes with little thought about personal safety, or the safety of others. Many bus drivers have expressed concerns about behaviour by some motorists who show little or no regard for a vehicle carrying passengers. This troubling attitude trend that shows no sign of abating, needs attention.

This rises above politics; it is a problem that involves every Bermudian with a sense of responsibility, and concern about island safety, and the motoring public.

With the warmer months fast approaching and outside activities increasing, including tourism, this is perhaps a good time to focus again on improving road safety, even if it means implementing new laws to assist in clamping down on motorists who put others in danger through their reckless attitudes. We all know nothing is perfect, but our roads certainly need to be safer, not only for the regular traffic, but for emergency vehicles when speed is essential in saving lives.

Any lives lost through traffic mishaps is always disturbing to all of Bermuda. What can be equally disturbing is that this subject only draws reaction from the community when something happens with tragic results.

Instead of appealing for more caution from the public, which is a good thing, we should be pressing legislators to come up with better methods to discourage blatant disregard for safety rules.

Our island is too small to have some using the roads as a type of racetrack. Police do an excellent job of trying to enforce traffic codes, but it is impossible for them to be everywhere at once. Innocent lives will always be at risk as long as people hop on bikes or get behind the steering wheel in a state of mind that will hinder their ability to have complete control. Whether it is anger over some personal matter, or substance abuse, the potential for mishap is high.

The road safety problem should be discussed in every home in addition to schools, with parents involved to broaden the field of education on a subject that could make our roads safer. When one life is lost because safety was ignored, it is one tragedy too many.

Accidents will be with us for ever. However, more positive attitudes when we take to the roads would lead to fewer incidents that leave much of the Bermudian community wondering what can be done to change things.