Justice?

Sir,
I feel that the following may possibly be of interest to you, particularly in view of the fact that we are about to have an overall speed limit of 70 m.p.h. imposed upon us, and that one can lose one’s driving licence merely because one hasn’t signed it!

Three months ago I was driving with my wife and three young children on the Swindon/Marlborough road on a Sunday evening, when over the crest of a hill just ahead came one vehicle overtaking a line of traffic. I braked down to about 10 m.p.h. before I put my vehicle right up the bank as far as I possibly could, leaving about two feet of my car still on the road. The overtaking vehicle still collided head-on with me, writing off both vehicles and causing considerable injury. On the evidence of drivers of cars which had been overtaken by the vehicle which collided with me, they were already travelling at 60/65 m.p.h. when it pulled out to overtake them on the wrong side of double white lines. After colliding head-on with me, he bounced back and collided with one of the vehicles which he had been overtaking, causing extensive damage to this car also.

The Police had reason to believe that the driver was drunk, but were unable to prove this because of his injuries, so in due course he was charged with dangerous driving, pleaded guilty, and at Marlborough Magistrates’ Court recently he was fined £40 and his licence was endorsed.

What a chaotic state we live in; we disqualify drivers for not signing their licences; we impose ridiculous 70-m.p.h. speed limits to reduce death on the road, yet in the case I have just quoted, this man can carry on driving. Where is the logic? Can anything be done ?

Winterslow. G.P. Dobbins.