a licence.

And a fund has been set up to pay for schoolchildren to improve their riding skills.

The moves are in line with recommendations of Judge Stephen Tumim following his probe into Bermuda's criminal justice system.

And they come just over a week after Devonshire teenagers Stephen Smith and Jeffrey Evans died in a road smash.

They collided while riding on Palmetto Road, Devonshire, sparking a national outcry over pack racing.

Police Commissioner Mr. Lennet (Lennie) Edwards announced a cycle training programme was being revived.

It would become a part of schools' extra-curricular activities.

Project-Ride was a joint venture involving Police, road safety officers, and the Amalgamated Bermuda Union of Teachers (ABUT), said Mr. Edwards.

Mr. Edwards added the union had opened a fund, and local insurance firms would pump money into it.

These included Argus/Somers Isles, Bermuda Fire and Marine, Colonial, Harnett & Richardson, and Freisenbruch-Meyer Insurance.

Said Mr. Edwards: "Insurance companies will put in funds to pay for instructors.'' Mr. Edwards said Project-Ride had been launched in 1986, but fizzled out.

Founding Project-Ride member and ABUT executive Mr. Jeremy Ball explained youngsters were given eight-week, 12-hour courses.

Schoolchildren were given practical and academic instruction.

Mr. Ball said courses were already up and running at Devon Lane School, where he was deputy head.

And they would be available soon at Whitney Institute and, hopefully, Berkeley Institute and other schools.

Devon Lane bikes would be used for instruction, said Mr. Ball.

Mr. Ball said, hopefully, a test would be brought in for 16-year-olds before they could get licences.

And anyone who passed the Project-Ride programme would be considered eligible for a licence.

That could be a big incentive for schoolchildren to take part in it.

Mr. Ball said the Education Ministry had backed the programme.

And there was a suggestion it could be included in the restructured education system.

Mr. Edwards said Project-Ride fell in line with the recommendations of Judge Tumim, Chief Inspector of Prisons in England and Wales.

Judge Tumim had recommended the Police look at ways of helping youngsters' road skills.

Mr. Edwards revealed several other Tumim recommendations were also being examined, and reports would be presented to him.

Recommendations included: Police should look at ways of developing work in the community and improving public confidence; Video and tape recordings of Police interviews of suspects; and Setting up an independent Police complaints body.