CB as evil as lady hitchers?
Page 29
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HAVING read your recent editorial on the subject of CB radio I feel compelled to advise you that during my 18 years as a commercial motorist I have never read such arrant rubbish.
You correctly state that American accident statistics are far higher than ours, but pointedly fail to observe the geographic and climatic differences between Britain the the USA.
To suggest that this statistical difference is in any way due to the existence of CB is a very sweeping statement, which you markedly fail to substantiate.
If your suggestion is that CB should be banned as a distraction to drivers then it must follow that car radios, cassette players, cigarette lighters and lady hitch-hikers fall within the same category.
Radio telephones and personal mobile radio must be outlawed without delay, whilst licensed radio amateurs must now forfeit the right inherent in their licences, to operate from a vehicle.
Your editorial fails to take account of the views of the majority of American police forces that CB radio is, and will remain, a positive aid to emergency services, actively reducing the response time to accidents and so on.
To suggest that British commercial motorists are not sufficiently competent to hold a conversation whilst driving represents a slur on the integrity of a large body of highly respected motorists.
Finally, I am,extremely disappointed that a normally excellent periodical such as Commercial Motor should become the vehicle for such bigoted journalism as this editorial.
K. L. TOWNSEND Birmingham