Car safety leaves a lot to be desired, why not fit speed limiters to them? - Yorkshire Post Letters

For over 40 years I was a member of the Institute of Advanced Motorists. Then I had the timidity to suggest that private cars should be fitted with a speed limiter as was happening on HGV and PSV vehicles. They were aghast at this suggestion. So I resigned.

Now we have many more light vans fitted with speed limiters, the Post Office being a classic example.

Our roads are becoming more and more congested and we have an all island speed limit of 70 mph. Why then are we still allowing new cars in particular on our roads which in an increasing number of cases can attain twice that speed? The police are regularly involved in dangerous high speed chases, some involving vans which reach over 100 mph.

I have a dash cam fitted to our car simply because in the event of an accident the likelihood will be a cry of ‘well, he's an old man - 85 - he must be at fault’.

When I retired for the second time more than 20 years ago I had driven well over a million miles. My only minor mishaps were in supermarket car parks. I am not silly enough to think I am immune to being at fault.

Settle is a great place to live apart from the traffic. Fortunately the quarry lorries should reduce in the spring when Horton Quarry is reconnected to the rail network. That just leaves the inconsiderate drivers who park on the pavement leaving families with prams and pushchairs to negotiate a way around them at their peril.

Car safety itself leaves a great deal to be desired. Hands free phones with the best will in the world are a distraction as are the multiplicity of brightly illuminated knobs and dials really requiring an assistant controller. Finally, surely it is time to outlaw those lethal blue lights on many vehicles which blind oncoming traffic.