Ten road deaths in just over seven months; no surprise there. Based on the trend since 1996, we're right on track and should expect to hit at least 15 by the end of the year. After all, we're leading the developed world in road deaths per 100,000 population, so we have a reputation to maintain.

Forgive me for sounding so callous. I offer my profound apologies and condolences to those who have been left grieving.

It's just that the scab on my forehead, you know, the one you get if you bang your head against a wall repeatedly, is beginning to hurt. I feel stressed out every time I'm on-call knowing that at any moment, I might have to go in to patch up a broken kid.

I'm starting to get an uncomfortable feeling deep in my gut, probably a combination of sadness and guilt, whenever we lose another one on the road. Maybe I should see a doctor.

Right now, though, I'm angry and frustrated. I've just read an article in this newspaper (Govt. pledges to modify Corkscrew Hill junction, Royal Gazette, August 5, 2009) that has robbed me of any hope that something useful is being done to address our road safety problem.

If the article had not included a mention that "speed" was a factor, one would have gotten the impression that the curve at Corkscrew junction had the nasty habit of suddenly jumping out into the path of unwary riders.

The general message one gets is that "something has to be done" as if the underlying problem is the junction. In my opinion, that's dead wrong.

I will, however, be the first to acknowledge that there is plenty of room for improvement on our roads, as any highway engineer will attest.

Thirty years ago, the American William Haddon Jr. introduced a systems approach to road safety and came up with the now famous Haddon Matrix in which he defined phases in the time sequence of a crash event. Road design and road layout are certainly important factors in the pre-crash phase.

However, failure to address the other pre-crash factors renders the exercise useless. In this context, we have failed to act.

It is very likely that in some or all of the deaths that have occurred at Corkscrew Hill junction in the last ten years, one or more of the following have contributed: speed, driving while impaired and improper helmet fastening.

So why are folks dying at Corkscrew Hill junction, you ask?

Well, I would suggest that when it's late at night and you're full-hot because you've had a few too many at your favourite Hamilton watering hole, your speech is slurred, your vision is blurred, you have trouble getting the key in the ignition, your coordination is at an all-time low, your helmet is on askew and loosely fastened and your fly's undone, it just so happens that the first curve you'll have to negotiate travelling east is the one at Corkscrew Hill junction.

Now if you were sober, the interesting combination of dip and curve would pose no problem, especially if you were travelling at anywhere close to the speed limit. But you're drunk and you're speeding and it's dark. Good luck!

It's really very simple. We have not addressed the pre-crash factors. You have to agree with me that speeding, driving while impaired and improper helmet fastening are all too common on our roads. We have as yet been unable to effectively address these problems.

Furthermore, there is every indication that things are getting worse, not better. And we're blaming the junction? Do you really think that speeding, drunk riders pay any attention to speed limit warnings and "frequent accident spot" signs? Maybe we should take it a step further and bank our curves and line them with tyre walls.

I'm not sure what it will take to convince the powers-that-be that this country has seen enough fodder in the cannon of non-intervention. It's time to act. Other places have done it successfully. Surely we can as well.

Dr. Joseph Froncioni, an orthopaedic surgeon, is the founder of Bermuda SMARTRISK and a former chairman of the Bermuda Road Safety Council.