The rate of road crash fatalities in The Bahamas is around 18 per 100,000 population which is better than the average of the Caribbean and Central America which is around 26 per 100,000. This rate is high when compared with countries such as the Netherlands, Sweden and United Kingdom where rates vary from 3.5 to 5.5 per 100,000 population.

The aim of the government is to reduce the number of road crashes and the number of fatalities and serious injury and bring the number of fatalities per 100,000 population to those levels experienced in those countries exhibiting lower fatality statistics.

In trying to achieve this major objective, the government invested in the national road safety project which resulted in the commissioning of the transport research laboratory of the United Kingdom to undertake various studies and reviews of road safety related issues. The outcome of these studies resulted in the development of 10 national road safety Initiatives which are in the process of being implemented by the Road Traffic Department (RTD) in conjunction with the Royal Bahamas Police Force (RBPF), the Ministry of Education with a number of private sector stake holders. RTD and RBPF are working together in order to capture crash data using the latest global positioning system in order to populate the digitized map of New Providence with the location of where road crashes occur. Over a period of time, it will be easy to identify locations where road crashes frequently occur. With this information, the RTD, the RBPF and the Department of Works will then be able to identify reasons for crashes occurring and put into place measures to minimize such future crashes.

A revised highway code was launched in 2008 to make it readily available, at no cost to the general public. The code has been uploaded on the government's website and can be found at www.bahamas.gov.bs/roadtraffic.

In order to sensitize the next generation of drivers, RTD is working with the Ministry of Education in setting up and implementing a road safety curriculum in senior schools. RTD is in the process of purchasing two desk top driving simulators that will help students better prepare for actual live road conditions. Members of the RTD and RBPF are continuously providing road safety presentations to all ages of school children. During 2010, the RTD is to launch a driver's instructors manual that will be used by all driving schools and instructors. It is also intended to upload the manual on the government's website so that learner drivers and others can make use of it while learning to drive.

Through the process of "Did You Know" Road Safety information, it is hoped that all road users become more aware of their role to play in reducing the number of crashes that presently experience on our roads.

The RTD welcome suggestions on how to improve road safety from all road users and any calls will be received by the staff of the RTD Transport Policy and Planning Unit at telephone 328-4825 or 6.

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