I WAS rather disappointed in the tone of Edward Fowler-Wright’s letter (Readers’ Times – April 23) that seemed to cast doubt on the value of the Hereford Times’ Safer Driving Campaign.

Apparently, the Hereford Times “shouldn’t make too much of one-year rise in the fatal figures” and launch a campaign on a blip in statistics. What arrant nonsense. Any increase in accident rates must be investigated thoroughly to try and reduce that rate. A failure to do so would abrogate all responsibility for road safety and demean the value of those killed and seriously injured.

Mr Fowler-Wright’s assertion that some motorists are merely passing through Herefordshire and “may benefit from road improvements and enforcement measures but not the safe driving” is a staggeringly bizarre statement. All motorists in any county would benefit from safer driving: this is an immutable fact-indeed, blindingly obvious, some might say.

If 10 people a day were dying in railway accidents, the television coverage would cause all of us to question whether it would ever be safe to travel in such a mode of transport. Yet every day we drive vehicles that cause death and serious injuries that destroy family life, without any great thought.

Frankly, every time we drive it should be etched on our brains that we are in charge of a deadly weapon, that is in the sole charge of the driver who must always accept full responsibility for the safety of all in that vehicle and other road users.

If only one person was killed, or injured on Herefordshire’s roads in any year, it would still be relevant to campaign for even better driving standards, as every day we all observe bad practice on the county’s roads that is fortuitous only for the fact that no carnage resulted.

DAVID McMILLAN, Redhill, Hereford.