IT WAS worrying to read in the Mail (November 26) that drivers caught breaking the 30mph limit felt that the Police should be tackling burglaries instead.
Following a recent tragic experience, I’d like to appeal not only to these drivers but also to any others who feel that it is their right to exceed speed limits with impunity, to have a long hard think and hopefully pre-empt another death.
Last we
ek, a fellow student and housemate of my daughter was run over and killed on an inner-city street.
The ripples caused by this terrible event have spread far beyond this lovely young man’s shattered family. In trying to comfort our daughter, who is desolate, we find ourselves grieving for a young man we never met.
It’s 30mph for a reason! There are very compelling ones as to why Northampton Road, Farndon Road and Lubenham have speed restrictions.
The first has two nurseries and a primary school nearby, the second has several farm entrances, The Lealands, Watson Avenue and the farm shop as potential hazards.
Lubenham, with its own tragic history of young fatalities, has a series of blind bends, yet all three locations are witness to criminal standards of driving. I don’t use that word lightly.
While doing 30 through Lubenham recently I was overtaken by a young mum with a toddler in the back; she crossed double white lines to do so.
Driving along a Harborough side street a few weeks ago a baby in a push chair rolled from the pavement into the road as its mum was distracted by her toddler. I was thankfully able to stop; need I continue?
Consider these statistics: At 35mph it takes an extra 21 feet to stop. If you hit a child at 30mph there’s an 80 per cent chance it will survive without serious injury. Hit a child at 40 and there’s a 90 per cent chance you will kill it.
We need to equate the breaking of the 30mph limit with drinking and driving, ie morally indefensible. It’s anti-social behaviour far worse than any drunken, street-centre hoodie.
If after reading this you still feel that you are such a good driver that you can defy the laws of physics then maybe the following thought may persuade you to slow down.
Think of the youngest member of your family, then imagine them being killed by a speeding motorist. Does it really need to be spelled out?
Richard Holder,
Nithsdale Avenue,
Harborough.
