17 NOVEMBER 1967, Page 27

Drinking and driving

Sir: If your corrrespondent Mr Daniels (Letters, 3 November) is really sincere in his regard for the preservation of human life at whatever cost, then he should sell his car and renounce driving.

Mrs Castle estimates that only some 200 lives out of the annual road deaths of 8,000 will be saved by the introduction of her new proposals. By giving up driving altogether, Mr Daniels will then be making a thirty-nine times greater con- tribution to road safety than by complying with the new regulations. To put it the other way round, sober drivers are involved in more acci- dents than drunken ones.

I am sure, equally, that he has already got rid of his cat or dog, and thereby helped to reduce the 3 per cent of accidents that are attributable to stray animals.

Sir, no one questions the desirability of reducing accidents and the necessity to save human life. The argument is about where to draw the line, and the real—or unreal—effectiveness of the new legisla- tion.

Nigel Vinson The Old Vicarage, Upton Grey, Basingstoke, Hampshire