Dear Editor,

It was refreshing to read Dr Jones’ comments on the grim subject of road crashes.

I could see his emphasis on reckless and impaired drivers causing a lot of the more gruesome collisions. I agree with him and salute his efforts over many years to inculcate better driving habits in road users.

However, I still contend that our focus shouldn’t be on speeding but on the categories identified above. Anyone driving in excess of 80kph on any road other than Highway 2000 is speeding.

I remain baffled by posted speed limits all over this country and maintain that many of them are plain silly. No one observes them and, in most cases, they are not the issue. Many of our highways have been straightened, paved, and realigned into things of beauty, but the same speed limits from 1938 remain in force. When one considers that on a road the calibre of the Edward Seaga Highway the highest permissible speed is the same as on any old country road that doesn’t have sidewalks, proper surfaces, or even a white line, it seems to me we are looking in the wrong direction for solutions to road traffic crashes.

The big problems are reckless and impaired driving, which we see all around us, in town and country alike. Daredevil overtaking and general disregard for other road users invite us to expend limited resources on the guilty.

Michael Nicholson

kovsky54@yahoo.com