selected to sit on a senior Parliamentary committee.

Quinton Edness and Irving Pearman will take their seats on the Private Bills Committee after the departure of previous members John Barritt and Grace Bell.

Mr. Barritt was made the new Sports Minister while Grace Bell defected to the Progressive Labour Party.

Mr. Edness was Labour and Home Affairs Minister and Mr. Pearman was replaced in his position as Environment Minister by Harry Soares.

The Private Bills Committee is to tackles tough issues such as the 60/40 ownership rule for Bermudian businesses.

UBP MP Michael Dunkley replaced new Home Affairs Minister Maxwell Burgess on the Public Accounts Committee.

CRASH VICTIM SERIOUS AC Crash victim serious A French chef badly injured in a motorcycle accident is still in a serious condition in an American hospital.

Pierre Riou is still in intensive care at Johns Hopkins University Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland, a spokesman said last night.

Mr. Riou, 21, was flown to the US after he was injured in an accident involving his livery cycle and a taxi last Thursday.

The accident occurred on Middle Road, Paget, close to the Fourways Inn Restaurant, at around 4.a.m.

DRIVER RECOVERING AC Driver recovering A man seriously hurt in a road crash that left his friend dead is recovering in hospital.

Selwyn Berkeley, 25, -- who suffered leg, foot and facial injuries in the accident on May 2 -- is in a satisfactory condition on a general ward at the King Edward VII Memorial hospital.

Mr. Berkeley -- who was initially in intensive care -- was drivng a red Subaru with his friend Ashanti Smith as passenger when the crash occurred on North Shore Road, Devonshire.

Mr. Smith, of Loyal Hill Pass, Devonshire, was killed in the crash and became the seventh person to die on the Island's roads this year.

TRAFFIC DIVERTED TFC Traffic diverted A two-vehicle accident near Warwick Academy yesterday forced traffic to be diverted from Middle Road.

Thirteen firefighters in four vehicles rushed to the scene at 2 p.m. because they feared people were trapped in the wreckage.

But when they arrived, they discovered that the three people involved in the accident, two in a truck and one on a cycle, suffered minor injuries.