IFA should follow its own advice

THE IFA’s David Wilkinson is right to call on all drivers to be considerate to other road users (December 18).

However, the IFA should apply the same advice especially to its own members.

How often have you been seen a tractor travelling at 30k/mh or so along a country road where the speed limit is 80km/h with eight or more vehicles trapped behind it?

In one instance I counted 20 cars as I sat in a petrol forecourt waiting for a break in traffic. While travelling home on many occasions I have been stuck in a queue behind a tractor, but the driver refuses to pull over even though there are several spaces available to him along the way.

Then the inevitable happens — some driver in the queue decides to make a break for it with the obvious risks. Tractor drivers — farmers and others — don’t pull over even when they reach towns and villages and I have often seen a whole line of frustrated drivers overtake, now putting the lives of pedestrians at risk as well as their own.

In contrast, car drivers on the main roads on my daily run are extremely considerate. Can the tractor drivers be as helpful?

Catherine Sheehy

Cedarwood Grove

Carrigaline

Co Cork