It's the early days of May, and six people have died on Bermuda's roads since 2005 began.

That's one person fewer than the toll for all of 2004, so it is likely that Bermuda will see more road deaths this year.

If the death toll continues at this rate, 18 people could be added by the end of the year to the long list of people who have been sacrificed ? or have sacrificed themselves ? to Bermuda's seemingly incurable habit of speeding and dangerous driving.

That does not count the large number of people who have received chronic injuries or been paralysed as a result of accidents.

Since 1962, almost 500 people have died on the roads, and as Road Safety Council chairman Dr. Joseph Froncioni has pointed out, few of those deaths were the results of genuine accidents. Careless or dangerous driving are usually to blame.

If almost 500 road deaths can't convince people to slow down and stop taking unnecessary risks, it is hard to know what will.

But something needs to be done.

It may be time to increase the penalties for speeding, dangerous driving, driving while disqualified and the like.

There was a time when driving while disqualified would land a driver with an immediate prison term. That was scrapped because of fears that it was creating a class of criminals who would never have seen the inside of a prison but for a "mere" driving offence.

That risk was there, it is true, but it was also a massive deterrent. So were lengthy driving bans for speeding over 60 kph and the like.

Today, people speed with impunity and it is no surprise that the accident rate continues to rise.

Government has said it plans to introduce a points system for poor drivers and that's a start, provided the penalties are stiff enough. Introducing the long-awaited fixed speed cameras in well known speeding areas would help too.

For some years now, warnings have been made that if the death toll has not been high, it has not been for lack of trying, and more a result of dumb (literally) luck. This year, with six deaths in just over four months, it seems that Bermuda's luck may have run out

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On the face of it, Shadow Housing Minister Wayne Furbert's criticism of Government's poll of people on the housing crisis seems sound.

Questions like "How serious is the housing problem in Bermuda overall? What are the most critical housing issues? What group of people is in most need of housing? What does Government need to do to address the housing problem?" either answer themselves or are, in effect, unanswerable, at least by the man on the street.

But there is room for a survey on deeper questions which would go some way to getting a grip on the more maddening question of just how severe the problem is.

While everyone can agree that there is a housing crisis and that the solution must include the construction of more homes, no one seems to be able to say how many new homes are needed, how many bedrooms they should have and the like.

Would 100 new homes ease the problem? Would 500 new homes turn the shortage into a glut? Are one bedroom apartments needed or two to three bedroom homes?

A survey that determined just how many people are looking for homes, what their real budgets for housing are, what parts of the Island they need to live in, how long they have been looking for accommodation and so forth would give Government some real answers. has not seen the poll, so it is impossible to say if these kinds of questions are being posed. If they are, then the poll is probably worthwhile. If they are not, then it's a waste of money.