5 JANUARY 1934, Page 23

DEATHS ON THE ROAD

[To the Editor of Tim SPECTATOR.] SIR,—May I suggest that your footnote to Mr. Dunford's letter misses the point ? True, legal rec,..tude is poor consolation to a cyclist after the injury, but it is prevention, not cure, that is needed. The knowledge that if he runs down a cyclist or pedestrian he will, ipso facto, be held guilty unless he can prove his innocence, will impel more careful methods of driving in many a motorist who at present is too apt to rely on the inter- pretation now placed on the law by many Coroners and Magistrates, ix., that, in effect, the King's Highway is the property of motorists and that others use it at their own risk.

The reflector v. rearlight controversy is to my mind