Dear Sir,

Lots of fuss but the same rhetoric in the paper; at least Commissioner DeSilva has said that a simple solution [to the spate of road crashes] is not enough.

In my opinion, a fresh look at the situation may help.

Firstly, to distinguish between two-wheeled accidents involving death or serious injury; lumping them all together makes no sense.

Most deaths arise from two wheeled collisions — hence I suggest that a campaign to reach bike riders is the key here.

Secondly, all riders need to know to signal, say, 40 yards before they turn.

Over the holiday I saw at least 1,000 incidents where improper signalling could have led to accidents. It is as if someone teaches drivers of all vehicles that it is wrong to signal in advance of starting to turn.

People pull up to traffic lights but do not signal until they get to the corner.

The rule seems to be “ignore the fool behind you and don’t tell him/her you are turning”. Or “ignore the guy trying to get out of a T-junction ahead and don’t tell him that you are turning in; let him wait”. This is negligent driving.

The Police have a tough job keeping us alive on the roads but one thing they could do is make a list of poor or non-existent signalling — maybe publish a list every week.

You could do it every day. After 50 years of riding a bike, which I am on about 40 minutes a day, I could find 20 such incidents every day.

On a six-hour road shift what could a policeman with 20/20 vision see?

Start with people turning right without a signal — the most dangerous of the non-signalling offences.

I would especially like to see the drivers who pull to the far left before they pull a non-signalled right turn get a due care citation.

Actually, those who signal as they turn the wheel are just as bad because when they take somebody out, the signal is flashing as if they did it on time.

Ending poor signalling, although not a universal cure, would be a good start; it means people are more aware of what is going on behind them and tells all in front, behind and to the sides what their intentions are.

Joe Wakefield