Fifteen people have died on Bermuda’s roads in 2026. Fifteen lives cut short. Fifteen families devastated … the latest victim was just 30 years old. These are children, parents, spouses, friends and neighbours. Yet preventable deaths through road collisions and violence are becoming disturbingly normalised.

How many more families must bury loved ones before we confront this crisis with the urgency it deserves? Bermuda’s problem is not simply a lack of money or technology. It is a failure of leadership, sustained enforcement and accountability.

The Government proposes speed cameras. But installing cameras is not a road safety strategy. Cameras cannot stop drink-drivers, arrest reckless motorists, execute outstanding warrants or replace visible policing. Where are the police? Bermuda’s policing is too often reactive rather than proactive. After fatal collisions or a public outcry, officers appear along roads notorious for speeding. Enforcement continues for several days, then officers move elsewhere, and dangerous driving resumes. You cannot reverse years of reckless behaviour through occasional traffic checks.

Community policing suffers similar inconsistencies. Foot patrols are sporadic, while neighbourhoods experiencing crime lack sustained police visibility. Visible policing deters offending, builds trust, gathers intelligence and prevents problems from escalating.

The commissioner has expressed satisfaction with police staffing levels. But the issue is not simply how many officers we employ. It is where they are deployed and what results they achieve. How many officers are consistently assigned to traffic enforcement, community policing and serious crime investigations? When you drove this morning, did you see a police officer? Did you observe safer driving? Were you travelling at 35km/h or 50km/h? If staffing is adequate, why is police visibility so inconsistent? Effective policing means preventing tragedy, not simply responding afterwards.

Speed cameras cannot detect drunk drivers. A drunk driver travelling below the speed limit can still kill someone. Where are the sustained sobriety checkpoints, night-time patrols, repeat-offender interventions and public education programmes? Our culture of excessive speed, dangerous overtaking and driving after drinking demands consistent enforcement and meaningful consequences. Technology alone will not change dangerous driving behaviour unless there is enforcement.

In August, the Bermuda Police Service reported 17,971 outstanding warrants and $10.48 million in unpaid fines. Now the Government proposes technology capable of generating thousands of additional offences. Who will process them, serve summonses, pursue offenders and collect fines within a reasonable time?

Consider Ernest J. Smith, whose case was reported by The Royal Gazette. Between October 2025 and April 2026, police stopped him 12 times for offences including driving without a licence or insurance. Despite repeated failures to appear in court, he ultimately received $4,000 in fines, 31 demerit points and a 15-month disqualification. Twelve encounters with police and 12 opportunities to intervene. How was someone who repeatedly disregarded the law allowed to continue placing the public at risk? An unpaid fine is no deterrent, an unexecuted warrant protects nobody, and adding cameras to a system already struggling to enforce existing laws risks producing more offences without improving safety.

What happened to EVR and CCTV? Bermuda introduced electronic vehicle registration in 2008 to identify unlicensed and uninsured four-wheeled vehicles. Motorcycles and auxiliary cycles were excluded from its original enforcement capability. Within months, more than $267,000 in fines had reportedly been collected. After upgrades, the Government reported in 2020 that EVR detected between 10,000 and 12,000 activities daily. Eighteen years later, where is the evidence of success? What has EVR cost taxpayers? How many offences resulted in prosecutions? How much remains unpaid? Has compliance improved? The Government has also invested millions in CCTV infrastructure. Now we are adding speed cameras.

Why are taxpayers funding successive technologies without a transparent plan demonstrating how they will operate together? Properly integrated EVR, CCTV and speed cameras could identify unlicensed vehicles, detect speeding, provide evidence of dangerous driving and help police to identify repeat offenders. Impaired driving would still require dedicated police detection and intervention. But effective integration requires trained personnel, reliable equipment, adequate funding, enforceable procedures and accountability. Buying technology is easy. Making it deliver results is considerably harder.

Regarding the speed cameras, what speed will trigger a camera? Bermuda’s national speed limit is 35km/h, with lower limits in designated areas, yet motorists routinely behave as though 50km/h is acceptable. Will cameras activate at 40, 45, 50 or 60km/h? Will thresholds reflect lower-speed zones? If motorists believe they can exceed the legal limit without consequences, what behaviour are we actually encouraging? The Government must publish the activation thresholds, enforcement procedures and penalties for serious and repeat offenders.

The Government has established a target of reducing serious collisions and fatalities by 50 per cent by 2030 but where is the fully funded operational plan to achieve this goal? Where are the dedicated police officers, administrative staff, court resources and integrated enforcement systems necessary to achieve it? How many additional personnel and finances are required to ensure that the system works? The public deserve regular reporting on programme costs, offences detected, fines collected, impaired-driving prosecutions, repeat offenders and reductions in serious collisions and fatalities.

When targets are missed, the Government must explain why and what corrective measures will follow. The whole purpose of the technology is to save lives and everything that is done must do so. Success must not be measured by the number of cameras installed, tickets issued or revenue collected; success must be measured by how many lives were saved.

Bermuda needs sustained, intelligence-led policing supported by properly integrated technology, effective courts, meaningful penalties and transparent performance measures. Our families deserve more than announcements and promises. They deserve leadership that treats every preventable death as an unacceptable failure demanding action.

A speed camera may record the offence. An effective enforcement system may prevent the death. Fifteen lives have already been lost. What will the Government do differently to save the sixteenth?

We need to take this personally. Otherwise, the next victim could be your child, your spouse, your parent or your friend.

• Robert King is the independent MP for Smith’s North