By ANGELO ARMBRISTER

Freeport News Reporter

angelo@nasguard.com

The rising number of traffic fatalities on Grand Bahama streets in recent months prompted police officials and religious leaders throughout Grand Bahama to hold a forum yesterday designed to find a way to put a stop to the tragic accidents.

Heading the panel of speakers at Police Head-quarters were Assistant Commissioner of Police Ellison Greenslade, Presi-dent of Grand Bahama Christian Council Bishop Ricardo Grant and various senior pastors, including Pastor Robert Lockhart, Rev. Raymond Pinder, and Rev. Michael Pinder. Also included on the panel were media personalities Andrea Gottlieb of Cool 96 and Diana Swann, ZNS Radio and Television's northern manager.

Assistant Commissioner Greenslade said each traffic fatality produces dramatic pictures of innocent human lives suffering and is a mirror of a wider family circle that is broken and hurting.

"We cannot tell the public that you are serious about traffic initiatives and you disregard the human factor," he said.

The forum included a power point presentation of pictures and statistics of this year's traffic accidents. The slide show was conducted by Chief Inspector Edmund Rahming, who wanted to put human faces to the numbers.

Chief Inspector Rahming said there have been 877 car accidents so far this year and of that number 368 resulted in serious injuries and 18 deaths.

Of the 18 traffic fatalities, 11 were young men. Six occurred in the month of September, 50 percent of which happened on East Sunrise Highway all within a seven mile radius.

Reasons for the accidents cited by police included carelessness, driving under the influence, falling asleep and speed.

Members of the panel offered numerous suggestion on how to begin to rectify these problems.

Rev. Raymond Pinder said more police visibility is needed on the streets, noting that if people see the police cars they will automatically slow down out of fear of being written up.

Andrea Gottlieb said we know where the problem areas are, but very little is being done about them.

Assistant Com-missioner Green-slade said the police have begun putting more resources back on the streets to improve visibility and monitor those problem areas.

Members of the Grand Bahama Christian council are calling on a higher power to help in this cause.

Bishop Ricardo Grant said the message that they want to send is that they are here and will partner together with the police and the public to fight this greater evil.

"I believe as the church we need to partner with the police and the wider community to see how we can offset the number of fatalities that have been taking place on our streets," he said.

In closing, Chief Inspector Rahming strongly advised motorists to obey speed limits and to slow down in areas where school age children are likely to be walking, especially the hours before 9:00 a.m. and after 3:00 p.m."

He urged drivers to exercise caution and care to eliminate potential accidents that could be avoided.

ROAD SAFETY CAMPAIGN – Assistant Commissioner of Police Ellison Greenslade is seen addressing yesterday's media forum on road safety as Grand Bahama Christian Council President Bishop Ricardo Grant (right) looks on.