ON the subject of speed humps, Brian Derbyshire and myself are in complete agreement.

I must thank Mr Breakell for the interesting information that, in accidents involving pedestrians, the pedestrian is almost always to blame, thus allowing Mr Lowe and others to say "Hard luck, it's your own fault". But this is to completely miss the point, which is that, no matter who is to blame, it is the car that kills, and the pedestrian who suffers.

In a civilised society, the avoidance of death or serious injury is much more important than casting blame.

I would also like to correct a statement made by a previous correspondent. The capacity of a vehicle to inflict injury is not proportional to its momentum, but to its kinetic energy, which varies as the square of its speed. Thus, in increasing a vehicle's speed from 20mph to 30mph, its destructive capability is more than doubled.

As we motorists are unlikely to voluntarily obey a speed limit so low, speed humps are the only method so far devised likely to succeed. They may be a nuisance, but not so much a nuisance as lying in hospital with a broken back.

Those of us who care about the lives and safety of others should be willingly prepared to put up with a little inconvenience at times. An accident may not have been our fault, but it will have been our car which caused the damage. The inconvenience is, in any case, minimal. Journey times are determined principally by the time we spend queuing at junctions and traffic lights, not by the speed we travel between them.

David Haworth

Upper Mead

Egerton, Bolton