THE Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate for Hereford, Jesse Norman, made some interesting observations about the safety report concerning the A49 in Herefordshire.

However, I do wish people would stop referring to “dangerous roads”, which would seem to indicate that there are some that are safe and others that are inherently faulty.

All roads can be dangerous if used incorrectly and without due regard to safety. Therefore, it seems incongruous to me to describe individual roads to be more dangerous than others – trickier to drive along quite possibly. Road users make the roads more dangerous than they would otherwise be if they, by their actions (or lack of them), do not drive with due regard and attention to prevailing conditions and indicated road hazards.

The safety report highlighted the need for improvements to the A49/A4137 junction just after Harewood End. Today, I watched a driver indicate well in advance to turn right off the A49 to join the A4137 heading towards St Owen’s Cross – a perfectly straightforward manoeuvre on a straight piece of road.

The driver following the car driver who was indicating his intention to turn right was too impatient to wait and sped past this vehicle, causing consternation to an oncoming lorry driver.

Luckily, this impatient driver was able to avoid a car already waiting in the designated right turn section.

The road and the junction posed no risk whatsoever on this occasion. So a resulting collision would have been entirely due to the impatience of a speeding driver.

Perhaps there are no dangerous roads, just dangerous drivers?

MIKE ROBERTS, Holme Lacy Road, Hereford.