BRSC, BPS & CADA Urge Safety Over Holiday

The Bermuda Police Service, Road Safety Council, and CADA have each released a message to the public ahead of Christmas, urging safety and responsibility over the holidays.

Road Safety Council Christmas Message

Good Day,

Christmas, Boxing Day, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day in Bermuda are times where friends and family gather to celebrate.

The Road Safety Council would love nothing more than for those celebrations to remain safe and incident free.

Before you leave your home please prepare to give the roads your undivided attention – drive or ride distraction free.

Ensure that all helmets are fastened correctly.

Make sure that the driver and all passengers are safely buckled into their seat belts.
Do not speed.

And please ensure that you have a sober designated driver or a safe way home.
Road safety is everyone’s responsibility.

We take this opportunity to wish everyone a joyous and safe Christmas and a wonderful New Year.

Thank you.

Erica Rance Mill – Chairperson

BPS Christmas Road Safety Message

Inspector Troy Glasgow, [Patrol Department] Community Policing Division – We are now well into the Christmas season. During this season there is much celebration and festive cheer.

However, we should also take a moment to remember those that have lost their lives on our roads, as well as those that have been seriously injured, and their families.

To date this year there has been 11 fatal collisions, up from seven the previous year.

Much work has been done to calm the roads and overall the numbers continue to go in the right direction. However, we also recognize that there is much more work ahead as the entire bad driving culture that has set-in on our roads must be reversed.

The Road Safety Strategy was rolled out at the beginning of 2015 in light of the alarming statics when we looked at the period 2008 to 2015. In this period 29 lives were lost to gun/gang related violence whilst in the same period 92 lives had been lost on the roads.

This indicates a person was 3 times more likely to die on our roads than to be killed in a gun/gang crime.

As a reminder, our Road Safety Strategy has two main areas of focus that are set out as objectives that we intend to meet.

Those are Saving Lives and Making the Roads Safer. We are meeting these objectives by balancing enforcement – citing traffic offenders for traffic offences – with a mission to raise awareness of bad driving behaviour, by increasing our visibility and stopping to engage in conversation with minor traffic offenders about their driving behaviour.

These conversations are recorded by way of issuing a Motorist Advice Notice.
We can now effectively measure our performance in meeting our objectives and through feedback from members of the public who have received a Notice, the Notices are having the desired effect.

Feedback is positive as some of those receiving the Notice have explained how thankful they are for being spared a visit to the Courts but have also confirmed that it has changed their own driving behaviour and they are more conscious of it.

Over the holidays, we would like for motorists to take heed of the advice that has been offered by CADA, the Road Safety Council and the Police Service – celebrate responsibly, be conscious of your driving behaviour and arrive at your destination safely.

The life you save might not just be your own.

The Bermuda Police Service wishes everyone an enjoyable and safe Christmas holiday.

CADA Christmas Awareness Message

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen,

As the Executive Director of CADA I am pleased to be here today to support the messages of The Bermuda Police Service and The Road Safety Council as we remind motorists to be safe this holiday season and to find alternatives to drinking and driving during the Christmas and New Year’s Eve celebrations.

Our message is simple:

• Always use
• Bus
• Cab or
• Designated driver

If you are going home before midnight, use public transportation to get you there safely.

We also encourage people to add the phone number of one of the local taxi cab services or a specific taxi cab driver to their cell phone. This way, when you are ready to go home you can call a cab.

CADA also offers a free late night cab service called, “Let Us Drive”, which leaves from outside the L.O.M. Building on Reid Street between at 3:15am and 3:45 am every Saturday morning. This service will be operating on December 23, and 30.

“Let Us Drive” is generously sponsored by Bacardi Limited, Burrows Lightbourn, Goslings and Corporation of Hamilton, to-date this program has taken home more than 15,310 people. We believe that this program since it’s inception in May of 2007 has saved lives and indeed collisions.

The third option is to assign a designated driver before you go out.

We encourage everyone to exercise caution as they travel Bermuda’s roads and before you go out make sure you have a plan to get home safely.

On behalf of the Board and its staff and volunteers of CADA I wish everyone a safe and happy Christmas and New Year.

Thank you.

#Christmas

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