1251 People Treated At KEMH After Collisions
More than 1,200 people have needed treatment at the emergency department following road collisions in the first nine months of this year, figures show.
“It is an astonishing figure given the speed limit and the number of people on the Island,” said Erica Rance Mill, the chairwoman of the Bermuda Road Council [RSC].
Figures released to the RSC by the Bermuda Hospitals Board show that from January 1 to the end of September this year, 1,251 people needed emergency department treatment following road collisions.
Of those 126 were admitted to the Acute Care Wing [ACU] and 23 were admitted to the Intensive Care Unit. Six of those injured and taken to ACU were aged 18 or younger.
The Road Safety Council has consistently called for roadside sobriety testing and wants to see the introduction of speed cameras.
It has also spoken out about the use of seatbelts – especially for children in back seats – properly fastening helmets and ensuring no-one drives under the influence of drink or drugs.
Mrs Rance Mill said: “These figures equate to about 139 people a month, or 34 people a week, being treated at the emergency department.
“Not only is the cost to the tax payer a concern so is the emotional, physical and financial toll these collisions take on the victims and their families.
“On top of that we have had ten deaths on the roads. Each life lost is one life too many. You have to ask whether people actually understand road safety and what good driving is really about.”
She added: “It takes a few seconds to make sure helmets are fastened, that seatbelts are on. It takes milliseconds to make a conscious decision to drive safely on the roads and to obey the laws.”
“Those few seconds could save a life – yours or someone else’s. The figures outlined here should come as a shock and numbers do not lie.
“We know that these figures alone will not be enough to persuade people to drive more safely and we will be increasing our Arrive Alive campaign over the next few months leading up to the end of the year.
“We urge each road user to do their part to prevent these numbers from rising and to help make our roads safer for all users.
“Finally, we would also like to thank the BHB for partnering with us to provide the numbers that enable us to raise awareness.”
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Category: Accidents and fires, All, News
Posters alone will not change attitudes but these figures are shocking
People should pay attention
As usual, stats on alcohols’ role in fatalities and injuries etc., not given, not even the vague “alcohol and or drugs”. Enabling and denial courtesy of the BHB endorsed by the RSC.
Yes, and also no time of day statistics.
I’m not sure that BHB would collect that kind of info – not that it really matters: the sheer scale tells a story in itself, surely?
Well apparently your not up to date Mr. Deacon
Where did the Road Safety Council get the stats from; KFC?
Your some chiel………………
er.. Terry, the BHB. The question related to whether stats could be given for the role played by alcohol/drugs in accidents
I fail to see the difficulty for the BPS, BHB and RSC to co-operate in recording the persons age, vehicle type, injuries, insurance status, cost of care, weather conditions, road conditions, presence of drugs, type of drug(s) including prescriptions, other vehicles involved, time, location, charges laid etc. with out names, to fully understand the real causes of crashes instead of anecdotal guesswork and assumptions, but apparently transparency is frowned upon by many who prefer to make or regurgitate unsubstantiated claims.
This.
Lol! I’m pretty sure with technology these days BHB could give you stats on every earache or baby boo boo that checks into ER
But it is not their role to record if you were the rider, driver, passenger…so not sure how they could produce those numbers. Your location during the accident is not a check box for your health.
What? Why such a ridiculously negative comment? Don’t these figures alarm you at all, regardless of the cause? Plus, it has been very well established and publicized that drugs and booze cause about 80 percent of the accidents.
it is people like you, who sit back and complain and do nothing that means nothing ever gets done.
Why is pointing out that relevant stats are never supplied, ridiculously negative in your mind? When they have ” very well established and publicized that drugs and booze cause about 80 percent of the accidents.” I feel it is deliberately non-specific so we do not know if drugs are 98% of the 80% or if alcohol is, data I feel would be telling, having an allowed amount of booze in the system while operating a motor vehicle with a bare minimum of real training, testing and/or education shows a “laissez faire” attitude towards root causes and is at odds with don’t drink and drive and road safety in general. But hey, what the hell do I know?
I agree with Dick F – this serves to highlight the sheer numbers of accidents. It should, at the very least, serve as a message that you need to be more careful on the roads and take good decisions: whether that is not drinking/taking drugs or whether it is not overtaking on a blind bend.
It has been well publicized that drinking is a big cause of crashes – but like I said, it is about taking the right decision before getting on a bike/in a car.
Indeed , what do you know ?
Every single time the subject of road crashes/accidents , etc comes up the first word out of your mouth is ‘alcohol this’ and ‘booze that ‘.
There’s plenty of other substances that impede one’s judgement when operating machinery and that includes herb which you can’t wait to have legalized.
But oh no , ‘booze this , blah blah’ endless drone on .
I refuse to drive between sunset and sunrise at all costs and the out of control totally lawless behavior I see daily without any regard for anyone else’s safety more than likely has nothing to do with alcohol consumption .
Sure it is a factor to consider between certain hours but nothing to do with the behavior that is at the root of so many of these crashes at all times during the rest of the day.
If as you wished , real stats were provided on the results of blood tests after accidents (if we even did them in the first place) the results would probably shock the public.
But it’s unlikely that it would approach the number of crashes caused by totally stupid and lawless behavior overall .
Ignorance is bliss in your world.
Is that the best you can come up with ?
The BHB statistics can only tell us why people attend. It is their job to treat the injured party, not determine or record if they were the driver, rider, passenger, pedestrian. It is also not their job to determine if alcohol or drugs are the “cause” of the collision.
Unless someone is charged and convicted these stats are not collected.
We chose to share these numbers as part of our awareness campaign. In the past the main statistics shared have been around fatalities. We are fully aware that statistics are not the solution, but the sharing of them helps bring about awareness. Press releases are not all that we are doing. Education is key and we have been actively taking our messages on the road and to schools.
The 3 main causes of collisions are speed, distracted driving, and driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol. We are working hard to educate the public, and suggest legislative amendments that will decrease these numbers.
We do appreciate your feedback, and can assure you that there is no denial on our part.
Maybe the BPS is responsible then. How do other countries have detailed, itemized stats on alcohol and drugs role, amongst other factors, and all we can come up with is blanket incident numbers. Stating that speed, distracted driving and alcohol (which is a drug) are the three main causes is based on what data exactly? Educated guess? Proper statistics enable sound decisions and meaningful legislative changes.
I would agree, we need to be shown more than just the fatalities. How about how many serious injuries per day or week – injuries that require surgery, etc. Add this to the campaigning and the like. But don’t forget the ‘stick’ part of the carrot and stick approach. Crack down on bad drivers.
7 out of 10 deaths on Bermuda’s roads are found to involve alcohol or drugs.
CADA, and lobbied, for all rd collisions that involve, injury should be tested for alcohol.
CADA, has also lobbied for RD side Sobriety check points, in additions to the lowering of the legal BAC, OF .05.
For any additional information feel free to visit http://www.cada.bm
Wouldn’t CADA do a better job with comprehensive statistics and not “7 out of 10 involve alcohol or drugs”, it is purposely vague, disingenuous and only satisfies non-analytical minds, this stat demands more information and specifics (please read my previous comments here). You mean lowering BAC TO .05 from .08 right? This is better, but some people may be impaired at that level too, and it doesn’t align with “do not drink and drive” any acceptable level is the wink, wink, nudge, nudge, indicating dangerously high social acceptance, since operating a vehicle after drinking any alcohol at all is totally irresponsible alcohol behavior.
A shocking statistic.
Could we also request some further data on these accidents like where they take place and at what time of day. We could then put together a sort of location “heat map”, for where the most accidents take place and when. Then, and this is just a suggestion here, maybe we post police at those locations at those times of day, or put in speed cameras at those locations. I really fail to see how the police setting up speed traps in the morning to catch commuters on their way to work is helping do anything besides pad government revenue.
This in combination with some mandatory time of the road for speeders is needed. It used to be mandatory six months off the road if you are caught doing over 60km, what happened with that policy? Do we want to get serious here or just keep going with the status quo?
Can we at least try this before we go down the rather intrusive and some may say unconstitutional roadside sobriety testing idea. I think that pretty much allows the police to pull people over and breathalyse them for no reason. I’m not ok with that on a principle.
I’m sure the police have those stats and I will ask.
The solution of the road safety people is always more oppressive government, which is why I oppose these self-appointed ninnies who would have us all driving 20 kmph if they could. Revenue cameras end up being adjusted so lots of safe drivers get tickets, and sobriety checkpoints use limits so low that honest people get busted.
If we want safer roads, why not redesign the roads to make them straighter, wider, better lit, with sidewalks for joggers (not stone walls), more roundabouts (to eliminate t-bones), and perhaps more effort to keep bad drivers off the roads?
How’s about telematics that automatically record a vehicle’s speed, braking, etc., so that insurers can solve the problem by charging bad drivers astronomical rates and giving the rest of us a break on our premiums?
So let me get this straight…you want us to redesign all the roads in Bermuda and make them straight, and you want them widened WITH sidewalks? Not sure where all of this land is coming from? Good job you are not a self appointed ninny then.
Too funny, you want this: “:If we want safer roads, why not redesign the roads to make them straighter, wider, better lit, with sidewalks for joggers (not stone walls), more roundabouts (to eliminate t-bones), and perhaps more effort to keep bad drivers off the roads?”
Who will do that, the ‘oppressive government’ maybe?
“Sobriety checkpoints so low that honest people get busted?? You wouldn’t get busted if you didn’t drink and drive. But thanks for offering up your garden for a wider road and sidewalk
The problem is not with the roads: the problem is with the drivers/riders who use (or, more accurately, abuse) them. To quote a favourite saying these days, “You can’t fix STUPID!”
We have an official speed limit of 35kph: we appear to have a generally accepted unofficial speed limit of around 45kph: neither of those speeds is in itself excessive, so WHY are there so many accidents on Bermuda’s roads? Discounting “Sudden Driver/Rider Illness” and “Sudden Mechanical Defect” (both of which are rare), and unless someone can come up with another cause, the only remaining option is “Human Error”, whether drink/drug related or just plain stupidity.
The financial toll that road traffic accident victims had on the public purse was in excess of forty two million dollars, ($42,912,618.61) between 2009 and 2015.This figure represents hospital cost only.
It is a shame there are so many injuries on the roads.
I see the EMTs picking some of these people up and many are not
very kind to the EMTs.
The EMTs are there to help in any way they can to the injured person, and
what do they get many times? Being cursed, spit at and do not co-operate.
Many of these people think they own the road and are invincible.
If you cause an injury to someone, I do not feel sorry for your injuries.
You deserve it.
It would be interesting to know how many of these were tourists. Any stats on that?
Ridiculously negative, why would anyone need that, blah, blah, blah…
How is this negative? If the numbers were high then it would suggest that maybe moving to alternative modes of transport would be beneficial to both our tourists, other motors and our health care system.
Valid points Sage.
They have Hippo’s in Bermuda?
Go back under your stone Terry.
Serious question: is it legal to have a small child stand on the front of a bike in front of an adult? I see this and it makes me cringe. What are the laws regarding small children as passengers on bikes?
It’s against the law to have a child at the front, but nobody’s been booked for it.
To be quite honest, when my youngest was that size, I much preferred to have him standing in front of me so that I could keep a close eye on him, and also keep him between my arms.
It also encouraged me to pay even closer attention than normal to the daft antics of other road users…..
Police see this sh*t all the time and do nothing about it. Same with texting and talking on the cell phone. The Police do jack sh*t. I’ve seen them look straight at people and keep on driving. Sweet, f*** all!! Oh my bad, we’re paying their wages to catch murderers! How’s that coming along!!!
police are only one part of this – people need to wake up to the fact that the decisions they are taking are reckless and endanger not only their lives but the lives of others.
We , the public , see this all the time but the police have to be in the right place at the right time to get the offenders.
However , something that’s right there in front of them all the time , as plain as day , is all these illegal license plates.
It’s gotten so out of hand that now we have people driving around with black back grounds and non legal font YELLOW numbers !
And nothing’s done about it . Like every thing else .
They’re busy arresting people for skinny dipping at the beach…a heinous crime that is!
Paperwork.
Well, I don’t remember the last time I saw a police presence for traffic. People drive whatever speed they want and drive however erratically they want with no consequence (until there is an accident). I’d like to see a more proactive approach to this problem. Being reactive means its already gone too far.
I too would appreciate more detailed statistics to qualify how many tourists; guest workers, etc are involved in these accidents.
Looking forward to reading those figures.