AFTER the spate of serious motor cycle accidents throughout our region, how sad and inappropriate were the remarks of Hyndburn Council's group engineer Mr David Law.

Following complaints of speeding motorists and eight previous accidents - including one fatal on the Grane Road (Blackburn and Haslingden Road) he could suggest nothing other than 'signs were upgraded' and 'there are signs there for people to see and all we can do is hope that this will make them aware of the risks.'

It might, he said, be possible to ask the county council to put down red countdown markings warning motorists to slow down. But he added: "On a derestricted rural road like this there is a limit as to what can be done."

Nothing is more serious than people losing their lives as a result of road traffic accidents, but statements like Mr Law's fail to address the real problem.

If Mr Law had ever taken a driver awareness course he would know, among many other things, that bad drivers hardly ever take any notice of road signs and markings, whereas good drivers generally don't need them at all!

Secondly, there is no such thing as a derestricted road, only a national speed limit - and there are two of those depending on the type of road. Isn't it, therefore, a further tragedy that 'expert' council officers lack basic driving knowledge and, despite being part of a 'listening council' (according to Hyndburn Leader George Slynn) don't even bother to broaden their education and then, worse still, purport to tell us that they know what's best for the rest of us?

As I've said on countless occasions, only a programme of further driver education will improve road safety once and for all, but such a programme must also be accompanied by firm law and order enforcement.

Everything else is just a 'knee-jerk' reaction towards a very serious problem exacerbated by certain councillors and their officers behaving just as non-listeners.

Unfortunately, they are all playing with people's lives without addressing the real problem - that of poor driver attitudes, which will not be rectified by the building of hazards or the painting of road markings which are then generally ignored.

This is mainly because many council-built hazards and road markings don't represent good sense - only council ignorance of normal driver behaviour, including that of bad driving!

ADRIAN SHURMER, Lyndon Avenue, Great Harwood.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.