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LANE DECISION IS DANGEROUS
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Having served the South-West network of motorways and roads for over 25 years, I am appalled by the decision of transport minister Alistair Darling to use the hard shoulder as a running lane when motorways are busy. Some points he wants reminding of are: 1. The hard shoulder is supposed to be a safe haven.
2. How are emergency and breakdown vehicles supposed to attend accidents?
3. Who is going to protect the broker-down vehicle and passengers?
4. Who is going to protect our guys out there when recovering vehicles, etc? The police do not have the resources or the manpower to do this—that's if they can get to the scene.
Anyone who agrees with this proposal is committing premeditated murder. I cannot believe someone of Darling's position could have so much disregard for safety on our road network today. I would like to invite him to attend some of the incidents that happen on the motorways and see for himself the dangers, especially in the early hours of the morning when getting a heavy commercial vehicle ready for recovery and in the darkness when underneath the vehicle, you hear a vehicle approaching running along the rumble strip of the hard shoulder: fear does not come into the equation.
As I said before, premeditated murder comes to mind.
Mervyn Johns M I Auto and Commercial Taunton, Somerset