Bermuda Road Safety Council Chairman Carlton Crockwell – ‘Think, Choose & Live.’ On behalf of the Road Safety Council and its partners, which include the Bermuda Police Service, we take this opportunity to thank you for supporting our campaign ‘Think, Choose & Live.’ As you think, choose and live while you are driving, let’s remember we have had a number of serious and fatal injuries that have reached alarming proportions in January and February 2013. And in response to these injuries, it was decided that a collective action was required to reduce the carnage on our roads.

One of the Council’s mandates is education. As a result, we decided to educate the motoring public. As such you have heard various radio ads, seen television ads and press releases encouraging members of the public to think, choose and live while driving. I must emphasize that our campaign for 2013 and beyond is that we want our motoring public to think, choose and live. However we felt that a collective partnership would achieve the best results and so this year we have worked together with the Bermuda Police Service.

In late February of this year, our partner the Bermuda Police Service increased the visibility of their patrols of the roads. The police presence has acted as a deterrent against unsafe and reckless behavior on the roads. The police service also reintroduced their Selective Traffic Enforcement Programme (STEP) and we believe because of this, we have seen the number of serious collisions come down from where they were.

We the Road Safety Council would like to emphasize that enforcement is important. We believe the Bermuda Police Service is doing just that. We believe education is important. We at the Bermuda Road Safety Council along with the Bermuda Police Service are doing that.

Our campaigns over the last few months have shown that people are now starting to understand some things about the roads. It’s our objective in the next few months to get around to as many people as possible to teach them the rules of the road and to educate them on how they should be driving and how they should not be driving.

With that we say thank you to the Bermuda Police Service for re-introducing STEP and we support you 100%. We also would like to thank those in the public; it’s very important that we thank those behind the wheel who have slowed down and are adhering to the rules of the road. Once again, thank you Bermuda Police Service and the public.

Inspector Phil Lewis – On behalf of the Bermuda Police Service, I would like to thank the Road Safety Council Chairman for all the support you have given to us and continue to give to us. We would like to emphasize, in partnership with the Bermuda Road Safety Council, that our focus is not only on enforcement - although we are charged with that responsibility; we also work very closely on the educational side. We think that it is very important that education is at the forefront; education in the context of trying to alter behaviours of driving on the roads. And if we can achieve that objective, I think we are well on the way to maintaining the downward trend of collision figures since the beginning of the year.

The following represents STEP statistics from March 1^st to July 3^rd 2013.

• Tickets Issued for Speeding: 1,406
• Tickets Issued for Driving Without Due Care: 76
• Tickets Issued for Dangerous Driving: 13
• Tickets Issued for Driving While Using a Cell Phone: 635
• Tickets Issued for Disobeying Traffic Signs: 971
• Tickets Issued for Helmet Offences: 108

In addition:

• From January 1^st – July 3^rd 2013 there were 129 people arrested on suspicion of impaired driving.