IS CARELESS DRIVING NOT A CRIME?
Is Tony Lawton's letter (Letters, last week) genuine, or has it been invented by some petrolhead trying to wind us up? He is advocating that it is acceptable to kill a person with a vehicle and escape any criminal liability, dealing with it by civil law. I believe many drivers think taking a person's life by careless driving is just bad luck and shouldn't be punishable by prison.
I recently attended a speed awareness course as an observer, and was shocked that of the 35 attending drivers asked what the consequences of speeding were, none mentioned death or injury. It seems their main concern was points on their licence.
Brian Evans, Bridgend, South Wales
HOMEGROWN DRIVING PERIL
As regards driving on the wrong side of the road (Peril from the east brings new threat to our roads, January 20), I had a bizarre accident on the M25 a couple of years ago.
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Driving in the late evening, I eased from the middle to the inner lane to take the Reigate turn-off, and was horrified to see headlamps in the mirror bearing down on me at a rate of knots; then I felt a loud bang as the car hit me.
The driver seemed a decent sort. We pushed his written-off car onto the hard shoulder, and as my own car was driveable I took him back to my place to sort out the paperwork.
It turned out he was a Brit who had lived in France for the past 10 years, hadn't driven in the UK for a while and had hired a car at the airport. He saw everybody slowing down in the middle lane, went to overtake but went to the left instead of the right. He was decent enough to sign a statement to that effect, which helped greatly with my insurance claim.
Geoff Mackenzie, Dorking, Surrey
TOO SMART TO MENTION
In their article slating smartphones (They're too clever by half, last week), Messrs Pell and Dunn fail to mention the HTC TyTN II, which has few of the flaws that plague other smartphones and is widely considered to be the best on the market. The four main UK phone networks carry it under a variety of names, including O2 XDA Stellar and T-Mobile's MDA Vario III. It is by far the best phone or pocket PC I have used in more than a decade of using both. In fact I sent this e-mail with it.
Rob Desira, via e-mail
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TEST THEM ON THE MILES THEY DO
It should be clear to anybody with sense that the fairest basis for the MoT test would be one of mileage covered (Letters, January 13 and 20 and last week). There is no need for a three-year test on a new car that is driven only 5,000 miles per year. However, a vehicle that is driven 50,000 miles a year obviously needs to be tested much more often.
Thomas Dootson, Sale, Cheshire
Letters for publication should be sent to InGear, The Sunday Times, 1 Pennington Street, London E98 1ST or e-mailed to ingear@sunday-times.co.uk . Please include daytime and evening telephone numbers