WITH reference to the article headlined “Rural roads are worst for fatal crashes” (D&S Times, Nov 27), the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety rightly highlights the correlation between higher vehicle speeds at impact and the likelihood of death or serious injury.

It then descends into a muddled explanation laying the blame for higher speeds on the layout of the roads and the lack of engineering measures to curtail it.

How wrong can the advisory council be? Drivers travel at inappropriate speeds and flout road traffic law because when they engage gear many engage the wrong attitude.

It matters not their reason for being on the road if they throw common sense out of the window, and no amount of engineering will improve the horrendous figures (and cost).

To make matters worse the Government, chief constables and police and crime commissioners have run down specialist road policing departments to the point where they barely exist and in some areas are partially staffed by part time volunteer special constables.

Speed enforcement, once the responsibility of knowledgeable and well trained traffic police, has become the responsibility of school children and community groups under the umbrella of Community Speedwatch with its sanctions limited to robust warning letters.

Individual, corporate and government attitudes need to change.

Timothy Wood, Guisborough