YET again we have further proof that the road safety policy is wrong in the UK ( Highest road death toll since 2000, January 23). The increase in Cambridgeshire road fatalities comes as no great surprise. It is very clear why fatalities h

Educate drivers

YET again we have further proof that the road safety policy is wrong in the UK ("Highest road death toll since 2000," January 23). The increase in Cambridgeshire road fatalities comes as no great surprise.

It is very clear why fatalities happen - poor driving standards. The Government has tried to brainwash the public into thinking speed kills but, in fact, that is total nonsense.

Speed cameras don't catch drink/drugged drivers, they don't stop people pulling out in front of other vehicles without looking, they don't stop vehicles being on the road with bald tyres, they don't stop drunken pedestrians walking in the road.

These are the things that kill, not speed. So when are we going to get better-educated drivers?

It seems very odd that we don't have a driving test that includes night-time driving, yet many fatalities happen in the winter months after 4pm.

Does anyone seriously believe that doing 39mph in a 40mph zone is safer than 41mph?

We used to have the safest roads in Europe, with 8,000 deaths in the UK in 1960s, which reduced during the 1970s and 1980s to about 3,500 in 1992, despite the huge increase in traffic.

The first speed camera was erected in 1992, and since then the death rate has remained at 3,500. This figure includes all users of the road, including pedestrians, and 20 per cent of fatalities are motorcyclists.

So, surely the way forward is to ditch the speed cameras, have more regular testing of drivers, have better road policing and stop relying on stupid yellow boxes that just catch the normally innocent law-abiding public doing 34 in a 30 on a dry road at 3am, while the driver behind is travelling at 30, uninsured, drunk and in the eyes of the camera, perfectly OK.

That's why the death rate isn't going down - start policing properly and training the driver properly, then the roads will be safer and less congested, and we might have the best safety record again.

With the speed cameras gone, the public (especially the motorist) will have more respect for the police, too.

Please, Cambridgeshire police, don't have a knee-jerk reaction and follow the Government's failed policy by erecting speed cameras or have white vans parked at the roadside with your laser guns.

Instead, deal with the useless drivers whom you see day in day out, and push for driver education just like the type the traffic police get.

ROB HARBORD

Eynesbury