WITH reference to the short article about the removal of speed cameras and its effect on the number of road accidents, I am very surprised that there hasn’t been more accidents cameras or no cameras. Why?

I believe it’s down to one basic Highway Code instruction, MSM, Mirror, Signal and Manoeuvre.

How often do we see motorists and cyclists doing the last one, but not the first two in the case of non-cyclists? At the station on Friday April 23 a hire van pulled out and nearly knocked a cyclist down. The same hire van driver when parking in the station car park, nearly reversed into a hire car. It’s as if cars are not fitted conveniently with indicator storks to operate.

Surely with so many driving school cars in Swindon the standard of driving should be high, but it isn ‘t. Even the driving school instructors aren’t perfect as I’ve seen two instructors in Swindon using their mobile phones while they were driving, not the pupil!!

The best one of all was when |I was in Wales and a driving instructor got his pupil to pull up outside a newsagents, on double yellow lines, then instructed his pupil to pull away while he read his newspaper.! Yes, it’s hard to believe but I saw it with my own eyes. what an example.

One day there is going to be more accidents outside schools. Why? I’ve noticed illegal parking outside Lawn Primary school, Colebrook Primary school and Goddard Park Primary school with no thought for the safety of pupils at those schools. Maybe it’s the same at other schools. One of the schools spent £3000 on a footpath so that parents could park legally in a car park and walk some 150 metres to collect their children, but do all those parents use it? No. They’d rather park illegally and risk causing an injury to a child, not their child, of course.

Whether cameras help or not to reduce accidents is important but far more important is every motorist driving and every cyclist riding according to the rules and regulations laid down in the Highway code, something which they should have studied but when was the last time they looked at a copy?

Cyclists why do they not all use cycle paths where provided or cycle where cycling is prohibited eg. the best example are the pavements both sides of the cross roads in Gorse Hill where I nearly got run over as I came out of a shop? A community policeman told a cyclist to get off his bike in Gorse Hill and push the bike. The cyclist got off, then got back on again and cycled away!

Again in another part of our country, two cyclists on a pavement asked myself and another person to move out of the way. When I challenged them I was told to get a life, strange. I did read in this newspaper that cyclists do not use cycle paths because they impeded their progress. The example quoted was that going along the Oxford Road they would have to stop at every driveway entrance to check if a motorist was coming off their driveway. Surely it is the motorist that should check not only for cyclists but pedestrians as well on the Oxford Road.

How much effect will this letter have on motorists using MSM and common sense as instructed in the Highway code to help everyone else who uses our roads and pavements and keep the number of accidents down?

ROGER HARTWORTH Cricklade Road Gorse Hill Swindon