Road deaths - A very small price to pay

OVER recent years we have made spectacular progress in making our roads safer.

Nevertheless, 178 people have tragically lost their lives on our roads so far this year and, despite the heartbreak inherent in this figure, it represents a considerable improvement on previous years’ figures.

Sadly five of those lives were lost this weekend and it is possible that others will die before the bank holiday weekend comes to an end.

It is even more tragic that we can predict with reasonable certainty that young men will, especially some under 30, feature in the weekend statistics.

No matter how safety features are incorporated into new roads, no matter how safe modern cars become, no matter how we crack down on drink driving and increasingly, drug driving, we are not as successful as we might wish in replacing young men’s sense of infallibility with the sense of responsibility that comes with age.

Nevertheless, we must try to convince young drivers that driving safely is a small price to pay to stay alive.