Oliver Starzynski ("Cockeyed wisdom", March 24) misquotes the Department for Transport's 2003 road casualty statistics in the most misleading way.

Looking at all roads (the report does not break the appropriate statistics down by road type) 26,147 pedestrians were involved in accidents with cars, and 1,854 with buses. A pedestrian was, in fact, more than 14 times more likely to be hit by a car than a bus.

The statistics Oliver quotes are to do with how likely, per kilometre travelled, it was that a vehicle hit a pedestrian, something quite different from what he claims.

Buses would only pose four times the danger as cars, as Oliver would have us believe, if they were on the roads in equal numbers.

Or, to put it another way, if each bus carries at least four passengers who would otherwise have driven, buses make roads safer for pedestrians.

Adrian Setter,

Barnfield Way,

Copmanthorpe, York.

Updated: 09:46 Monday, March 28, 2005