Careless drivers know they will escape punishment: Yorkshire Post Letters

From: ME Wright, Harrogate.
By YP Letters
Published 2nd Sep 2019, 17:45 BST
What more can be done to combat irresponsible driving?What more can be done to combat irresponsible driving?
What more can be done to combat irresponsible driving?

I’M sure that Jayne Dowle and the road safety charity Brake speak for many of us in demanding effective intervention to prevent needless deaths due to maniacal driving of one sort or another – and not only in the young (The Yorkshire Post, August 29).

Bradford journalist Michael Wharton, aka ‘Peter Simple’ of the Daily Telegraph, created a memorable cast of people from the extremes of 
left and right.

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One of these was J Bonington Jagworth, leader of the Militant Motorists Liberation Front, proclaiming every motorist’s divine right to drive and park however and wherever he/she pleases.

The deaths of four young people in a car crash in Horsforth, Leeds, last year, have prompted calls for schools to take the lead in highlighting road safety.The deaths of four young people in a car crash in Horsforth, Leeds, last year, have prompted calls for schools to take the lead in highlighting road safety.
The deaths of four young people in a car crash in Horsforth, Leeds, last year, have prompted calls for schools to take the lead in highlighting road safety.

Michael Wharton is long gone. Jagworth is still with us in both male and female form; now with mobile phone clamped to one ear, possibly programmed with the number of a loophole lawyer.

Jagworths are very much in a minority, but unless and until they kill or maim, they know they’ll get away with a slapped wrist and a few points.

Their speed-freakery is equated with glamour, rather than indicating a possible need for psychiatric help and a re-sitting of their driving test. They are presented as heroes to the young. How do we overcome this?

Related topics:HarrogateJayne Dowle