20 AUGUST 1954, Page 6

Slow Coaches

I am becothing increasingly convinced that road accidents would be lessened if no one was allowed to drive under 40 milds an hour except in built-up areas. A queue of five cars, nose to tail, bumbling along at 20 mph arouses in the driver of the sixth such a feeling of impatience that he is liable, after a few miles, almost to prefer an accident to any further contem plation of the loiterer's rear. Desperation takes the wheel, and regardless of the perils ahead he tries to pass his tormen tors. It is the slow drivers, not the fast, who should be fined for dangerous driving.