YP Letters: Selfish drivers should be hit where it hurts

PETER Hyde reinforces and repeats the call for more police patrols to combat the menace of drivers using mobile phones, particularly in his rural district (The Yorkshire Post, May 2)

Whilst totally agreeing with his comments, I can inform him that the situation is just as bad on our suburban roads. I live at the end of a cul-de-sac and we see the same thing with van drivers and also some residents as well.

Having previously done traffic surveys, I can recommend anyone to spend a short time at a busy road junction, or at the entrance to a supermarket, and then just observe the panoply of bad habits by a sizeable percentage of drivers of cars, vans and HGVs.

As with Peter Hyde, I think we need many, many more police patrol cars, with more of them unmarked, to combat the tsunami of bad driving. The Government and police need more funding for street/road patrols to catch these arrogant, thoughtless, inconsiderate motorists who gamble on not getting caught.

When caught, they should be hit where it hurts most – in their pocket and in restricted mobility. In other words, substantial fines and the threat of many points on the licence.

Anarchy on our roads needs urgent and firm attention.