20 OCTOBER 1967, Page 27

Sir: The tendency to draw misleading conclusions from statistics is

well illustrated by Mr Nigel Vinson's remarkable statement (Letters, 13 Octo- ber) that 'the chance of being killed by a car on the roads today is one seventh the risk it was in 1931.'

This is true only in relation to deaths per thou- sand cars. As the increase in the number of road deaths approximates to the increase in the popula- tion over this period, the risk of being killed (deaths per thousand people) is about the same. That the danger of death has not greatly increased is attribut- able to the many measures taken to improve road safety, of which the current effort against drunken driving is only the latest example.

D. F. C. Mann

Ashdown, Miles Lane, Cobham, Surrey