I WRITE in reply to the letter from an Unsworth resident headed: "Catch real villains - not just speeders" (July 16).

Your readers may be interested to know that there are only 16 constables on Bury Division who are on full-time traffic duties. These constables are also involved in taking prisoners for crime, though their main purpose is to reduce accidents. This they attempt to achieve by many methods, including the reporting of "speeders".

In the last full year there were five fatal, 26 "serious injury" and 686 "slight injury" accidents in Bury. In many of these, excess speed was a reason why they happened.

There are many reasons for maintaining speed checks, including government requirements, local requests and the need to reduce vehicle damage. But I believe the most pressing argument is that . . .

(a) Speed injures;

(b) Speed maims;

(c) Speed kills.

CH. INSP. DAVID BLEACKLEY

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