THE "road rage" attack on a female tractor driver highlights an increasing problem on rural single carriageway A-roads: vehicles travelling slowly and preventing others from overtaking them safely.

No sane motorist would object to waiting a few minutes for a safe opportunity to overtake a tractor or slow-moving lorry.

But my sympathy quickly evaporates when these vehicles accumulate a convoy of 20 to 30 cars behind them and still refuse to pull into a layby to let them through nearly half an hour later.

Something also needs to be done about the (mainly elderly) car drivers who think it's fine to pootle along at 35mph in a 60mph-limit on a clear, dry day and in perfect visibility.

The ever-increasing volume of traffic in my daily commutes up the A19 now makes it almost impossible to overtake such drivers safely, even with my two-litre engine.

They regularly provoke less mature motorists into doing something stupid.

I see two or three such incidents each week.

I am not condoning this recent attack. It appears to have been perpetrated by a mindless thug who should be removed - permanently - from behind the wheel.

But he is an exception to what I believe should be a general rule: that those who either can't or won't drive close to the maximum safe and/or legal speed need to show more consideration for those who can and will.

Leo Enticknap,

Ingram House,

Bootham,

York.

Updated: 10:46 Saturday, September 11, 2004