Sir, - As tour guides, our members are in a better position than most to appreciate the unsung skills and patience of the coach drivers who are the backbone of the thriving coach-tour industry in Ireland. This skill was highlighted recently in the accident at Chapelizod bypass when Peter O'Brien saved the lives of 78 schoolboys and their teachers.
On coach tours, of course, the roads used are primarily the winding, narrow, highly scenic but totally unsuitable roads of Kerry, Connemara or Donegal. There our drivers daily perform feats of valour that never reach the front pages.
May we support the suggestion already put forward by the National Safety Council that seat belts ought now to be compulsorily provided for all passengers in coaches before we have a tragedy that even the coach driver cannot avert. - Yours, etc.,
From Marguerite Condon
Honorary Secretary, Federation of Irish Guiding Interests, Dundrum, Dublin 14.