Benthamite analysis of seat-belt law
Page 17
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YOUR correspondent, Mr Ingham-Johnson (CM, September 26) has made a number of fundamental errors in his Benthamite analysis of seatbelt legislation. To assume, as he does, that no one but the victim is damaged by the effects of road accidents is to forget that the average cost of a fatal accident costs the community in the region of £100,000.
To assume, as he does, that one man's death is merely an efficient form of population control reduces him to the level of the lower animals.
And to assume, as he does, that seat belts may or may not save lives is to ignore the specialist evidence available and rely instead upon his own terms of reference which, as he does not state them, are either suspect or non-existent.
Fortunately, Government has ignored the absurd protestations of the type propounded by your correspondent and has legislated to save both lives and money by the seat-belt measures. !trust that when Mr Inham-Johnson drives with or without his seat-belt he reflects upon the fact that I, for one, would resent highly both his death and the resultant cost it would place upon the resources I have entrusted to central and local government.
JOHN BLAUTH IPC Transport Press Ltd Quadrant House Sutton, Surrey SM2 5AS