Sir, - Every newspaper I open contains a picture of a mangled car in which more lives have been lost. Each new tragedy makes it harder to believe that the Government takes seriously the appalling toll of death and injuries on our roads.
Its inactivity on this issue contrasts with all the promotional advertising of the scrappage scheme designed to get rid of older vehicles. Yet, according to the statistics, vehicle failure is indicated in only 1 per cent of accidents.
Surely the cost of monitoring the speed of vehicles and ensuring reasonable standards of behaviour on our roads is insignificant compared with the cost of the tragic deaths and the debilitating injuries that are a weekly occurrence.
The time has come to ask why there is such complacency. Does the answer lie in the combination of a powerful motor industry and a Government that values the revenue cars provide more than their drivers' safety? - Yours, etc.,
From Cecilia McGovern
Wellington Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4.