A free minibus service aimed at stopping drunks from driving may be extended and could already have saved a life, according to the chairman of the Centre for Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention.

Anthony Santucci told members of Hamilton Rotary this week that the trial scheme launched earlier this month by CADA had so far ensured that 73 people got home safely after a Friday night on the town.

He said the provision of the two buses — which run from opposite the Emporium Building on Front Street in Hamilton at 1.45 a.m. and 3.45 a.m. on Saturday mornings — had “potentially saved a life”.

He added: “If we took 73 home that didn’t drive their car or bike, how much money have we saved the insurance companies?”

Mr. Santucci told the Rotarians that in 2004 and 2005 at least half the drivers who died on the Island’s roads were over the legal drink-drive limit or on drugs and that in 2006 more than three-quarters of those tested for drink-driving after being involved in a crash failed the test.

He said the “Let Us Drive” minibus campaign was aimed at providing free, safe transportation for people who drink and need alternatives to driving home intoxicated. “With this initiative, CADA has taken concrete steps to reducing the number of alcohol-related deaths on Bermuda’s roads,” he said. “The service starts after public transportation is no longer available, during the early hours of Saturday morning, when most people are arrested on suspicion of impaired driving.

“The Let Us Drive campaign service is available until the end of June initially.

After the trial we will evaluate the effectiveness of the service and make decisions about continuing it.”

Mr. Santucci said a drink-drive public awareness campaign last month which involved displaying severely damaged cars around the Island had received a “huge response”.

“People were stunned. We had many calls to the local Police and the media to find out what was going on,” he said. “Even as we were putting the cars out during the early hours ... people who were driving around at that hour stopped to ask if there had been an accident and if anyone had been injured.

“The point is that the campaign was a success and if we were able to have one driver that day, only one, stop and think about the effects of drinking then this programme was a success.”

Mr. Santucci told the gathering at the Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club that parents needed to consider whether alcohol was easily accessible in the home.

He quoted statistics from a 2003 survey conducted by the Department for National Drug Control which found that 58 percent of students aged 12 to 16 had tried alcohol and 93 percent of students had done so by the age of 14. Asked if Bermudians should follow the European practice of introducing youngsters to the taste of alcohol in a home setting, he replied: “I’m not saying that we introduce them to alcohol; that’s a personal decision that families have to make. They need to understand that alcohol is a drug and when you introduce that drug into the environment it’s going to have an effect.”