YP Letters: Law must be changed on killer drivers

On a number of previous occasions I have, in the correspondence columns of The Yorkshire Post, praised the continuing campaign to bring attention to the problems caused due to loneliness.

The most recent campaign theme of the Post towards the need, urgently, for a change in the law that in its current form has allowed dozens of people convicted of killing by driving dangerously to walk free in
the last decade must surely be a campaign of equal importance to the plight of the lonely (The Yorkshire Post, November 22).

The Post’s Ruby Kitchen and Chris Burn are to be congratulated on their in depth report on tragedies which have prompted, quite rightly, a change in the law that will provide hopefully for the maximum penalty of 14 years in jail for any driver found guilty of causing death by dangerous driving.

Currently the police and the Crown Prosecution Service, in order to be sure of a prosecution, very often pursue a case against the driver of causing death by careless driving on the basis that this charge, in court, is more easily proved, even though it means a lesser sentence for the driver.

The national cycling charity Cycling UK, based in Guildford, with a membership of 67,000, has long campaigned for a recognition by Government that the current law must be revisited to put a stop to this completely unnecessary carnage on our roads year upon year. The tragic case of the death of cyclist Eric Codling, run down by a speeding motorist as he cycled in Sheffield, is all too familiar.

Tragically, this is just one of many instances of a cyclist being killed by an irresponsible motorist, clearly driving dangerously.

NI number for health care

From: Michael Robinson, Berry Brow, Huddersfield.

IN recent considerations of the problems of obtaining payment from non-nationals for health treatment courtesy of the NHS, the suggestion was that health care be dependent upon being able to show proof of identity such as a passport, and a household utility bill.

Children may struggle with these requirements, but all bona fide UK residents will have an NI number, including children and legitimate visa holders. Either an NI number or credit card details must be lodged to gain admittance.

Your correspondent Mr Mountain (The Yorkshire Post, November 23) told us about the extreme crowding of supporters going to the RL Four Nations Final in Liverpool on the regular Sunday rail services and questions why TransPennine Express had not provided the space necessary for the numbers shown on the rail company’s system.

I remember ‘Football Specials’. Did the Rugby Football League make TransPennine aware of the huge promotion they were running in Liverpool that Sunday?

Our rail system is stuffed full and HS2 has surely been misnamed – isn’t it about providing the desperately needed capacity by creating a newly designed line which will allow speeds which our Victorian forebears could never have envisaged when they dug the lines out along the curving contours of the land?

Sir Bernard Ingham asks if anyone has explored the possibility of addressing the urgent need for greater rail capacity by re-opening branch lines closed not by Dr Beeching but by the government which gave him his brief, “instead of driving the HS2 through whole housing estates”.

Hasn’t Sir Bernard noticed the housing estates built on the old closed lines?

Cure for poor productivity

From: Dr Glyn Powell, Bakersfield Drive, Kellington.

MUCH was said about poor productivity in the UK (The Yorkshire Post, November 24). This, however, can only be overcome by having an industrial economic strategy that prioritises science-based and high technology industries, with money for research, development and technology training of future employees.

Leave Abbey monks in peace

From: Mrs Caroline Wakefield, Brackenfield, Alfreton, Derbyshire.

FASCINATING news that the burial place of the monks at Fountains Abbey has been found, but I do hope that the National Trust won’t be tempted to disturb these graves, which survived the Reformation and everything else that history threw at them.

When I was young I used to live nearby and always found it a beautiful, peaceful place. These men, who led harsh, ascetic lives, helped in their day to make Fountains what it became in its heyday, and indeed what it is now. I believe these monks and lay brothers should be treated with respect and left alone.

Well versed in police matters

From: Judith Appleby, Scalby Road, Scarborough.

I HAVE just finished reading a recently published murder mystery and thought some of your readers might like to add it to a Christmas list. The author is well versed in police matters and so comes across with authenticity and careful attention to detail.

This book is the fourth novel by Sue Woodcock and is entitled Operation Cain: Shepherd’s Mystery. It’s a jolly good ‘yarn’. I look forward to the next one.

Speed is not everything

From: Iain Morris, Caroline Street, Saltaire.

IT was five times Nobel Peace Prize nominee Mahatma Gandhi who said: “There is more to life than increasing its speed.”