Letter: Speeding drivers

Sir: Your leading article made depressing reading. Perhaps your leader writer is amongst the 70 per cent of motorists who exceed the 30mph limit in built-up areas. He or she drew an invidious distinction between those who speed and "those who drive dangerously at whatever speed". Speeding is dangerous driving.

According to AA research, speeding is a major contributory factor in a third of all road accidents. Government figures reveal that in 1998 1,100 people died and 100,000 were injured in speed-related accidents. The fact that "everyone" (ie motorists) regards speed limits as "flexible guidelines" does not make them so. Would you argue the same for drink- driving limits?

You also suggest that the Government is attempting political hara-kiri by offending "one of the largest possible sub-groups of the electorate, namely car-drivers". What about parents whose children can no longer play in the streets because of speeding cars? Or pedestrians (an even larger electoral sub-group than drivers) whose journeys are made unpleasant and dangerous by speeding traffic? Or cyclists? Or communities plagued by speeding rat-runners? Don't these people deserve a break from the menace of speeding?

BEN PLOWDEN

Pedestrians' Association

London SW8