From Margaret Levy
Roger Taylor
(15 April, p 40)
seems to contradict himself. He says that we
may be nearing an irreducible minimum of road accidents “where the number of
different causes equals the number of accidents”. Bad driving, often by usually
good drivers, is cited as the most common factor in accidents. He concludes that
this problem can only be solved by improved awareness. This seems to me quite
the wrong conclusion. No amount of awareness will eliminate all momentary lapses
by normally good drivers. The real problem is that increased speed makes the
outcome of such lapses worse. Since we cannot eliminate the periodic bad driving
that causes accidents we must reduce their impact by reducing speed.
Newcastle-upon-Tyne
