Don’t blame speed (From Daily Echo)

Don’t blame speed

3:55pm Tuesday 31st July 2012 in Readers' Letters

I SHOULD like to respond to S Judd who wrote (In My View, July 21) about being intimidated by other drivers.

Unfortunately, many speed limits are set today not for reasons of road safety but for political gain by councillors wanting to curry favour with voters. This has led in many places to a huge mismatch between what most motorists would consider a safe and reasonable speed and the posted limit.

This leads to a general disrespect for limits (which at one time could be relied upon to indicate areas of increased local hazard) and it is this effect which S Judd is seeing.

Rigidly enforcing limits will not “protect us law abiding road users”

as speed is a contributory factor in only a small minority of collisions.

By far the biggest cause is inattention and it is this and better driver training which should be addressed.

MALCOLM WINTER, Whiteparish.