This would save life on motorways
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THE serious "pile-up" on the M25 prompts me to make the following suggestion: A few weeks previously I ran into slight mist there. I slowed down and switched on (as I thought) my rear fog lights. However, I found I had switched on my emergency winkers. The effect was miraculous — other cars slowed down, too, wondering where the emergency was. (Then there was not one.) It is too facile running into mist to maintain one's speed forgetting how long the braking distance is at 60 or 70mpg and ignoring the sound advice of never driving at a speed where you cannot stop within the distance you can see.
The suggestion is, therefore, that all drivers (private and commercial vehicles) should switch on their emergency winking lights when there is mist on the motorway. Perhaps there are people who would raise objection to this, though it need not be more than a suggestion to begin with. But if it would save life, limb and loss of vehicles and also major delays this might be regarded as the overriding argument. PS This method would still work when the speed restriction lights at the side of the motorway were not working through mechanical or electrical fault or human error. A. V. MASCULL Tooting London