A vast amount of work still needs to be done in order to reduce the toll of deaths and injuries on Bermuda?s roads, according to the outgoing chairman of the Road Safety Council.

Dr. Joseph Froncioni made the remarks after handing in his resignation following five years at the helm of the council, which advises the Minister of Transport on road safety issues.

He took the opportunity to throw down the gauntlet to Government to take the tough action that he believes is needed urgently, including a crackdown on drink driving and an increased Police presence on the roads.

?It?s hard to tell what we have accomplished,? he said. ?At the moment I?m not sure if the road situation is any better than it was when I became chairman in 2001.

?Possibly the only thing that?s increased for sure is awareness of road safety through public service announcements and articles in the newspaper. I?m absolutely certain that there?s a mountain of work remaining to be done.?

However, he was keen to stress that he is not stepping down from the chairmanship on December 31 out of frustration.

?I have submitted my resignation, which has been accepted by Dr. Brown, based on the principle that for such an important problem you need new ideas.

?Five years is too much for one person ? I have lost none of my enthusiasm but occasionally you need change and someone else may come up with solutions,? he explained.

As a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at King Edward Memorial Hospital, Dr. Froncioni, 52, spends much of his time dealing with the results of crashes on the road and is firm in his belief that that the majority can be avoided.

?There needs to be greater awareness that road traffic injuries are preventable. We have had 12 deaths on our roads already this year and if these had been deaths as a result of murder we would have had Scotland Yard over here and would consider it a very serious development indeed.If they had been deaths from meningitis or influenza, Bermuda would be in a panic about so many deaths from one cause but because they are road traffic deaths there is no alarm.

?Society thinks that ?accidents happen? but prevention is better than cure. I believe that every dollar spent on accident prevention will pay for itself in savings to our society,? he said.

And he called for the following specific action to be taken:

Increased Police resources to better enforce current laws.

A crackdown on drink-driving.

Better training for new drivers and tougher tests.

A graduated licensing system as used in the USA, Canada and UK whereby new riders are subjected to curbs on their driving in the first year after they pass their test, such as not carrying pillion passengers or riding at night.

He pointed to two positive developments that came during his time as chairman.

One was plans to introduce a demerit point system in which drivers who repeatedly break the law face being banned from the road.

The second was the introduction of mandatory seat belts for drivers and front seat passengers in 2003.

He is also hopeful that a major study he is working on with the charity Bermuda Smartrisk, will ultimately help to reduce injuries and save lives.

He is four months into the pioneering research which involves compiling and analysing data on all of the estimated 3,500 to 4,000 road crash victims who presented themselves at KEMH for treatment during 2003 and 2004.

The research, which will take another year to complete, will focus on factors such as the age and sex of the victims, whether they were residents or visitors, what time the accidents occurred, and what type of vehicles were involved.

Explaining that the only other study of this nature was published around a decade ago and only focused on a three-month period, Dr. Froncioni said: ?One of the reasons I have resigned is to dedicate more time to this charity. We hope to draw some meaningful conclusions, and think that a two-year study will shed a considerable amount of light on the issue.?