PLEASE, please can we stop all the nonsense being written about speed and safety on our roads, from the likes of Mr Sadler (LET, July 28), and can I fully endorse the comments (LET, August 12) of Linda Sanderson, Lancs Partnership for Road Safety.

Firstly it is the law that people travel below the specified limit, that is usually 30mph unless otherwise signed. That is below not at or just above.

It is not a target to aim for but a restriction placed for safety reasons, as it is also impossible to alter the physical laws which govern stopping distances, reaction plus stopped times are fixed.

If people get booked then it is because their choice was to break the law, just the same as those who take away goods without paying for them.

Speed kills. It might not cause accidents but it is the factor which kills our children, elderly and vulnerable.

At 20mph if a child is hit by a car, there is a 95 per cent chance they will live; at 30mph the chances are 45 per cent they will be killed, and for every mph above this the kill rate percentage rockets.

In Hull, they are a bit braver than here and have introduced 20mph on about a quarter of their roads and already the reduction in all child casualties is 64 per cent.

In financial terms, while it costs to set up, they reckon to have saved £35million already.

Careless driving is costing us, the nation, £17billion every year. Of that, £8.5billion is human costs, £5.2billion vehicle and property damage, and it includes £537million an unneeded cost to our NHS.

However our empathy must be for lost lives, the families left to mourn, and the stress to police and fire people who have to mop up after accidents.

No appointment can be more important than a human life.

Good luck to the Marsh House Lane, Darwen campaigners in their bid to get speed reductions, I hope eventually our area will benefit from such a scheme.

GRAHAM CARTER, Secretary, Lower Darwen Road Safety Panel, Kingsway, Lower Darwen.