Traffic fatalities get all the attention but represent only a fraction of the Island’s problems with road safety, according to Joseph Froncioni.There are a far greater number of motorists injured in accidents which result in serious injury and high hospital costs, he told Hamilton Rotary members yesterday.“That is what makes the headlines. That is what stirs seemingly caring words from politicians. That is what gets people to promise things. That is what people make policy decisions on.“For every one death, we have just under 200 injuries in Bermuda. That’s enormous and it’s hidden. That never makes the papers.“About 30 percent of those are what we consider serious injuries. That means it’s more than just road rash, you need a real medical intervention.“You might need surgery, you might need a stay in hospital. Of those a certain percentage will leave them with serious, permanent disabilities. Road fatalities are just the tip.”Such persons place a heavy burden on the healthcare system, said Dr Froncioni, an orthopaedic surgeon who has treated many road crash victims.Along with the cost of immediate treatment for accidents, there is the further cost of rehabilitation, custodial care and the emergency service response.Dr Froncioni has advocated for road safety over the past 20 years.During that period he has seen the standard of driving in Bermuda fall and the number of injuries relating to traffic collisions rise, he said.He showed a video where a Front Street traffic light had been temporarily replaced by stop signs. Dozens of vehicles ignored the signs during the five-minute recording.“There’s no interpretation needed for a stop sign,” Dr Froncioni said. “You need to stop.”The two main issues affecting road safety in Bermuda are alcohol and speeding, he said.He explained the speed of traffic has gradually increased since 1996 due to a reduction of traffic policing, and higher speeds lead to additional road deaths.And the surgeon said he had no idea how prevalent drink-driving was, because so little testing was performed.“We test nearly every patient in the Emergency Room, but the blood-alcohol results that we get are not admissible in courts. It must be obtained by an arm of the police and that hardly ever happens,” Dr Froncioni said.“We’re not sure how many people are diving around Bermuda’s roads impaired, but those of us who work in the Emergency Room know that nearly every patient that we lean over to attend to has alcohol on his breath.”Road death statistics over the past decade show males are significantly more likely to die on Bermuda’s roads, he said.Men are also more likely to drive in a risky manner and males in a relationship are more likely to ride motorcycles while females drive cars.“You are 36 times more likely to die on a bike then when you are in a car. There is just no protection,” Dr Froncioni said. “At 16 years old, we put our children on potentially the most dangerous vehicle on the planet with next to no training.”Dr Froncioni renewed his call for publicised sobriety checkpoints, saying that they have been proven effective in curbing drinking and driving.“We don’t want to catch drink drivers, we want them to find other alternatives. It costs money, but I think every dollar spent will be recouped with saved lives,” he said.Speed cameras would similarly discourage motorists from exceeding the speed limit and there should be more intensive tests in place for people wanting to earn a motorcycle licence, Dr Froncioni added.“People are going to object to having speed cams; people objected to having helmets,” he said. “The medicine is going to be bitter, and it takes a brave politician to squeeze our nostrils and pour the medication down our throats, but it needs to be done.”*Dr Froncioni sits on the board of the anti-drink driving group CADA, but was not speaking in that capacity.