There’s not a lot of room for error on island roads this time of the year. Or anytime of the year, for that matter. The speed limit may be 55 mph on State Route 305 and 35 to 40 on the island’s main arterial roads, but the increase in the number of both vehicles and bicycles during the summer months behooves all of us to reduce speed for safety’s sake.

It could be argued that there are remarkably few serious accidents on the island considering the amount of peak-hour and peak-season traffic on our narrow roads, but the more serious ones often happen when people are rushing to get off or on the rock. It seems that they get distracted.

In less than two hours last Friday afternoon, three accidents – involving five vehicles and a bicycle – occurred within a couple of miles of each other on the north end of the island. Remarkably, no one died, though a 20-year-old woman bicyclist and a 51-year-old motorist remain hospitalized in Harborview Medical Center with serrious injuries.

The rash of accidents began when the Bainbridge bicyclist suddenly veered her bicycle from the northbound shoulder of 305 into the path of a northbound mini-van, according to police and witnesses. Police are still unsure why the bicyclist inexplicably turned into traffic, but an MP3 Player and earphones were found in the accident’s wreckage. The young woman was airlifted to Seattle while police closed the state highway between Koura and Lovgreen, detouring traffic that already was becoming heavy as the weekend approached.

Northbound travelers were sent west on Koura, then onto Miller Road to the 305-Day Road intersection. Southbound drivers detoured east on Lovgreen, then south on North Madison. Or a variation of that theme. Police are old hands at dealing with accidents on 305 and had the situation under control until one accident begot another and then another.

A fender-bender involving two cars happened on Koura and, while one of the five officers on duty investigated the non-injury accident, she heard a more violent crash occur about a half-mile away at the Koura-Miller intersection.

This one, according to witnesses, happened when a Honda driven by a 51-year-old Bainbridge man was attempting a U-turn from the southbound lane of Miller when a Jeep, also traveling south on Miller, smacked into the driver’s side of the smaller car. The man suffered internal injuries and was also airlifted to Harborview. Fortunately, his injuries were not as severe as initially suspected and he is recovering in intensive care.

What’s happening here? Was this just a blip in traffic safety or another example of a trend? Some argue for the latter, pointing to the fact that there seems to be a large lack of education regarding traffic safety. There is no driver’s education after a person gets a license at 16; there is no bicycle education at all; and pedestrians tend to ignore traffic signals like the plague.

Throw in all of the distractions like music players and cellphones and you’ve got people so wrapped in their own little world that they are often oblivious to things whizzing by. For example, recently there was a 30-something man riding his bicycle in the 305 bike lane a half-mile north of High school Road with his hands off his handlebars, keeping time with the music he was listening to. What world was he in?

What to do on the short term? How about police waking up drivers and bicyclists and pedestrians by handing out more citations. Apparently that’s happening more often these days, which is a step forward. More important, perhaps, would be lowering the 55-mph speed limit on the highway that runs through our city. There’s really no reason why people have to race because, with the half-dozen traffic signals, they’re not going to get to where they’re going any faster whether the speed limit is 55 or 45 or even 40. And lowering it to a safer speed throughout the island might actually save a life.