Don't avoid the damp patch

Sir,

Following Michael Schumacher’s accident at the British Grand Prix, I wonder if a progressively deeper gravel trap, used to slow cars being driven into it before the usual final and violent collision with tyre walls, has been tested or considered?

Might I also have the temerity to suggest from my own experience when flying Stirlings (with treadless tyres, I may add) during the last war and landing at high speed on grass airfields wet with morning dew, to run into a welcome soggy patch had the desired effect before going through the boundary fence with sometimes catastrophic results. In fact the only way to free the aircraft was to be towed backwards by tractor. Perhaps soggy patches might be an option after all.

I am, yours, etc. Ken James, Dunstable, Bedfordshire