Aren't motorists lovely? I refer to various letters moaning about traffic calming - the latest on Monday.

They always miss the point and never correctly define the problems, which are obvious.

1. Too much steel and glass in too small a space. Result, gridlock.

2. When space is available (which is rarely), too many motorists try to slam their accelerator pedal through the floor of the car.

Result: mangled bodies.

I read in a national broadsheet that although our road death statistics do compare reasonably well with Europe, we are somewhere near the top with the number of children our wonderfully self-disciplined motorists manage to kill and injure. This tells a story.

Here's the deal. I couldn't care less about your blasted shock absorbers, exhaust pipes, chassis plates, widgets or anything else.

If slowing a motorist down today means a child sees tomorrow, good!

I think that's probably checkmate.

Graham Horne,

Beech Avenue,

Bishopthorpe, York.

Updated: 10:14 Wednesday, September 04, 2002