Foggy notions behind giant car pile-up

MIRACULOUSLY the recent crash on the New Sheppey crossing bridge in Kent involving 100 vehicles in foggy conditions did not lead to any fatalities (Yorkshire Post, September 6).

It does appear though that many drivers have accepted a false sense of security; they feel safe and protected from the outside world and ignore its weather conditions, snug in what they believe is an indestructible, comfortable metal box and completely oblivious to reality.

Driving in fog on our roads, particularly motorways and busy commuter highways, has become a frightening experience, almost akin to playing Russian roulette with your life and at the mercy of those drivers whose lack of the most basic intelligence should prohibit them from driving a motor vehicle.

Hurtling headlong into the gloom at speeds which make stopping only possible when they plough into the vehicle in front of them.

Those sensible drivers who maintain a suitable stopping distance have no protection from the irresponsible idiot who will crush them from behind.

Crashes of this magnitude always provide news headlines but the multitude of accidents in foggy weather which are spread around our country, often involving fatalities, receive no publicity due to only two or three vehicles being involved in each incident. In total, though, they must amount to horrific numbers of accidents.

On the same day as the New Sheppey carnage we had very heavy misty conditions in this area, with vastly reduced visibility, a not unusual occurrence in a coastal district.

I estimate that around 20 per cent of motorists were still travelling without using dipped headlights, despite all the publicity there has been on this issue.

When trying to join a main 
road in these conditions it seems 
you just have to hope and 
pray that one of these camouflaged idiots will not emerge from the gloom and smash into you.

I am always amazed that when the driver of an unlit vehicle sees others with dipped headlights on, he doesn’t think to himself how much easier it was to see him.Does this fact simply fail to even register with him?

Perhaps, incredible though it sounds, they believe they’re spending money by using their lights.

All it takes is a simple flick of a switch or the turn of a knob to make them far more visible – is this too much to expect?

It seems that using lights in poor visibility is joining the indicator switch as unfashionable, being superseded by other more urgent and necessary items like the mobile phone.

I believe that driving in foggy conditions without dipped headlights is so dangerous it should be dealt with far more vigorously with fines which reflect the sheer stupidity of those involved.

Skirting round
the dress code

From: Mrs Marjorie Maude, Rainhall Crescent, Barnoldswick, Lancashire.

I HAVE followed Mrs Sutton’s remarks (Yorkshire Post, August 28) regarding skirts with interest and now must reply to Mr Oliver’s (Yorkshire Post, September 4) remarks.

It put me in mind of over 60 years ago when a friend wrote the following in my album.

The wind it is a naughty wind, that blows the skirts so high,

But God is good, and sends the dust to blind the bad man’s eye.

Also I must tell Mrs Sutton it is not only us ladies letting the side down, what about the men?

My son attended a wedding a week or two ago and went off in a three-piece suit complete with button hole and gold half hunter watch and he was amazed how other gentlemen were dressed in shirt sleeves and jeans in some cases.

We really are going west, as my son remarked. It’s something if you can’t make an effort in reply to an invitation.

From: Mrs Vera Newhouse, Tosside, Skipton.

READING the letters in the Yorkshire Post about women wearing trousers reminded me of what young lads did during the Second World War.

I lived on the side of the main Leeds to Bradford road which had double-decked trams and buses. With men having to go into the forces, women were taken to be conductors (ticket sellers etc) on the buses and trams.

When they were going up the steps to the top deck, some young lads often crouched on the platform at the bottom of the steps to spy up the conductresses’ skirts!

When this was realised the women were advised to wear trousers – this was one of the beginnings of this fashion.