By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Chief Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

TWO people were killed in a car crash during a weekend that recorded more than a dozen traffic accidents.

Police said the number of accidents over the weekend –– 16 up to press time –– was not unusual, but the number of traffic deaths so far this year, 20, is unusually high.

Authorities are urging drivers to “slow down” and exercise caution.

The traffic deaths happened around 2am yesterday on West Bay Street, where a silver coloured Nissan March and a white BYD vehicle collided.

Both drivers –– a Filipino national and a 46-year-old Bahamian identified as Donald Deveaux –– had to be extracted from their vehicles with jaws of life and were pronounced dead at the scene.

Superintendent Coran Jennning, second in command of the Royal Bahamas Police Force traffic division, said the number of traffic fatalities this year is concerning.

“By this time of year, we don’t have those kind of numbers, but for the majority of our fatalities, speed was a factor, and we always encourage the public to slow it down,” he told The Tribune yesterday. “It doesn’t matter what time of day it is, whether it’s night or day, you should still adhere to the speed limit.

“Not because it’s dark and the road is empty means you exceed the speed limit and I think that played a big factor in that fatality based on the damage we saw.” 

Supt Jenning said none of the weekend accidents appeared connected to popular parties or events.

“From what we see on a daily basis, we would have up to 15 to 20 traffic accidents ranging from serious to minor,” he added.

“In total from (Saturday) to now, there was about 16 accidents and it’s going to be more at the end of the day. I can’t say by how much but that’s a normal number.”

By May 31, 2023, 22 people had been killed in traffic accidents, prompting Transport Minister Jobeth Coleby-Davis to call the trend “worrying”. The country is already exceeding that pace in 2024.

Ultimately, there were 51 traffic fatalities in 2023, down from 59 in 2022. There were 46 traffic fatalities in 2021.

In 2022, there were 10,586 road accident reports. There were 11,023 such reports in 2023.

“Safety week starts on Friday,” said Supt Jenning. “We’re going to do a live remote giving out some safety tips and speaking about drinking and driving and encouraging persons that there are non-alcoholic beverages such as Heineken Zero.

“We’re going to take that opportunity to speak to the public.”