Infographic: Road Death Statistics 2000 – 2013
The infographic below contains some of the statistics recently released by the Bermuda Police Service, showing the road deaths over the last 12 years. The statistics breakdown the deaths of the 140 traffic collision victims by age, race, sex, nationality and the type of vehicle involved.
The statistics include two children; 6-year-old Tyaisha Cox who died in 2003 and 8-year-old Lavaj Thompson who died in 2001. The vast majority of those killed on the roads were males riding motorcycles; however there were a range of vehicles involved including rental cycles, auxiliary cycles, cars, pedal cycles, racing bikes and golf carts. Eight of those killed were pedestrians.
Infographic below and the full statistics are available here [PDF]:
Bermuda has suffered five road fatalities already this year. The death of Andrew Peniston on Jan. 6 was the first, the death of Haile Matthews on Jan. 18 was the second, the death of Torrie Baker on Jan. 19 was the third, the death of Jason Darrell was the fourth, and the death of Jevanie Fubler on Feb. 2 was the fifth.
Speaking after the most recent traffic fatality, Minister of Tourism Development and Transport Shawn Crockwell said he will be meeting with Attorney General Mark Pettingill and Minister of Public Safety Michael Dunkley, and they “will be working with urgency to address this unacceptable trend.”
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local..black..men..on motorcycles
actually the population is 65% black (near enough) and the proportion of black people dying is 66%. Hence from these statistics it appears that road deaths do not discriminate on the basis of skin colour.
Ditto
So this graphic clearly identifies what the problem on our roads actually is – - – black local males on motorcycles/cycles. So how do we combat our problem? Take their “toys” from them? Teach them how to drive “better”? Do we “educate” them about the risks? Or do we simply “punish” them when they act up?
I am curious as to what we as a community believe is the solution to our problem. Discuss
I think you need t ore-read the stats mate. This is a perfect divide and not lump sided as you are implying.
Actually YOU need to look at the underlying data a bit deeper. If you strip out tourists and guest workers (22), and pedestrians, pedal and racing bikes (13), you get 105 fatalities for locals driving or in motorized vehicles on the roads.
Out of this 105 the racial split is 80 black 25 white so it is quite skewed when compared to racial demographics. We can debate stripping out passengers but we’re still unfortunately pretty socially segregated by race so it’s a good bet that the driver and passenger were of the same race.
However, if you look even deeper and include sex and age in the mix a really disturbing trend comes out.
Let’s start with population demographics. Roughly speaking 70% of the population is of driving age (16-70). Let’s strip out 5% in addition to account for those that don’t own or operate vehicles for whatever reason (e.g. disability). So 65 out of 100 Bermudians drive.
Now out of that 65 only about 8 (or 12%) are black males under 40. Seems small but once you start dividing demographics on multiple lines you get small pretty quickly – 65 times 0.61(race), times 0.5(sex) times 0.4(age).
Now let’s look at that data on road fatalities again – 105 local road deaths while operating or in a motorized vehicle.
Now out of this population of 105 let’s add up the fatalities that tick all of the following boxes; male, under 40, and black. You get a total of 59.
So a demographic that makes up 12% of the driving population accounts for 56% of all deaths while operating a vehicle. How’s that for skewed?
So although race is not that much of a factor, race combined with age and sex (as Road Sense implied), now that is a different story.
As for solutions here are a few suggestions:
Speed cameras with photo capability admissible in court placed randomly around the island.
MANDATORY – 6 months off the road if you are caught doing in excess of 65kph
MANDATORY – 1 year off the road if you are caught doing in excess of 75kph
MANDATORY – 6 months of the road if you are caught using a cellphone while driving twice in the space of a 12mth period.
MANDATORY – 6 months off the road if you receive two “driving without due care and attention” tickets over a twelve month period
If someone cannot pay a traffic fine, give the Court the right to immediately seize and auction the vehicle upon which the offence occurred, and apply the proceeds towards the fine.
…aged 16-40…
Forgive me at the outset but this information is actually useless.
The goal should be to take corrective action and reduce the number of fatalities. Therefore we need to at least know the reason for the collisions (note I did not say accidents). As an example, is there an analysis of the causes of the collisions? Speed, alcohol or drugs, road conditions, type of vehicle, lighting conditions, time of day etc. This information should be released in a generic form to avoid divulging individual circumstances, of course.
Once an anlysis of causes is completed, a solution may be easier than we all realise.
Without this information we are left with an almost foolish assumption that we should ban black Bermudian males from riding motorbikes early in the mornings on weekends!!
stats are never useless, at the vary least they show you a picture of what has taken place, its up to the powers to use this information to make legislation if need be.
I know what you’re saying but at the same time I know of at least one accident where the person was riding drunk but after their accident their face was too mangled to even consider a breathalizer. My grandfather was killed by a bus, he never sped, obeyed all laws of the road but what put him in front of that bus? Heart attack, stroke, negligence, we don’t know. My cousin was mowed down by and emergency vehicle heading to an “incident”. What happened there? Few more that 2 people know that one. You really just don’t know. Some may have been drinking but also may have medical conditions, which one was the cause? Statistics are known facts not speculation so you can’t guarantee a cause for every one. How we prevent the preventable fatalities is by each and every one of us making a conscious decision to be safe. I’ve done same really stupid things with a motor between my legs and I look back and think that was really stupid, if one thing had gone wrong I could be dead. It got to a point where I had been far too lucky and I knew it was only a matter of time before my luck ran out. We need to think about the what ifs and not just for ourselves but the people who’s hearts we will break and who’s eyes will endlessly shed tears when we’re gone.
Yes I agree, it’s not useless, a snap shot picture is provided, but further discussion and analysis is necessary. This is a good opportunity for further commentary from the media/BPS and community.
I realize we’re talking about one of the most racially obsessed countries on the planet (so it’s no surprise to see race as a catagory), but when you stop and think about the data, you will notice no real correlation between race and road fatalities. The proportion of black vs non-black road deaths simply reflects the broader population (ie. roughly 66% of people on island are black).
I agree with “Vote for Me” in that there is WAY more data that should have been included in these results.
Also, what is so difficult about setting up speed monitoring devices in certain “trouble spots”?? They take a picture of your license and mail you a ticket when you’re caught doing x amount of miles/kilometers over the speed limit. If you don’t pay your fine on time, you are charged a penalty. If you have outstanding tickets, you can’t renew your license or you can not obtain insurance or your bike/car can not pass TCD during inspection . If you’re caught driving without a license or an uninsured/uninspected vehicle, you go to jail. Too easy?
I agree with ‘Vote for Me’. It would be very interesting to know how many of these deaths had alcohol as a contributing factor, especially when the accidents are referred to in the press as ‘single vehicle accidents’ and the driver ‘lost control’.
We need to change the mindset of people so that drinking a few beers and then driving is not ok, at present, it is socially acceptable to do so. In very few other jurisdictions would colleagues / friends openly say, man I was hammered last night, I shouldn’t have driven home but oh well…..
Go out, drink, have fun, get drunk but don’t be selfish and endanger the life of someone else because you can’t be bothered or are too tight to get a taxi.
This shouldn’t be a black/white thing or a Bermudian/expat issue – it should apply equally across the board.
Agreed. There has to be an analysis of the causes. The data provided is almost a waste of time without it. Why this information is not released is beyond me.
I wonder if the accident rates increased after they introduced 4 stroke 125 & 150cc bikes?
And why do we have a stupid seat belt law if the majority accidents are on bikes?
The amendment to the legislation allowing faster more powerful bikes came into effect on Jan 1, 2005 – notice anything in those stats after 2004?
@AD – Now that is interesting! Good observation.
what are the numbers standardized per 1000 people? The population increased during the mid-late 00s, then declined recently – which would produce the same shaped graph with no per-capita change in accident rate.
Isn’t 66% just about the rate of black to non-black in Bermuda. Seems that race has nothing to do with it.
I want to know more about the golf cart fatality!!! Is it bad to LOL over that?
Yes – it is bad to laugh out loud when talking about the tragic death of a 73 year old woman.