Daytime lights don’t lessen road toll

Sir,
If the proponents of daytime running lights on cars who recently wrote in to your letters page are correct, then the countries in the European Community who use them should have better road safety records than the UK.

The European Community’ ‘Transport-Road Safety’ website” shows that The Netherlands, Finland, Sweden and Denmark all have about 25 per cent worse records over the last five years that records are available based on the number of vehicles on the road.

Collectively they average 84.27 fatalities per million cars over this five-year period while Britain averages less than 60. Holland, Finland and Denmark all have very much worse records and Sweden only matches the UK when measured merely against heads of population, which of course is an incorrect measuring stick.

The real problem comes to light when looking at the ratio of Vulnerable Road Users (cyclists and pedestrians) which is, of course, much higher as I predicted.

The Netherlands has an appalling record of cyclist slaughter but in fairness that is a reflection of the numbers on their roads. The disappointing thing to me is that Mr Hughes in his attempt to justify his position chose to ignore these figures which completely destroy his illogical argument for the use of Daytime Running Lights.

GC Evans
Peyia, Paphos

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