Dear Sir,

Police presence on the road is KEY. When their presence disappeared years ago everyone started going a little faster.

The average speed used to be 50kph and now it is at least 60kph. Bikes overtake you whether you are doing 50 or 60 because the mindset is “I must be in front”.

With the wider cars on the road, the third lane has become narrower and because people are driving wider cars they are driving closer to the yellow line because they are afraid their mirrors are going to hit the wall, especially on Harbour Road.

Riding in the third lane is now like playing Russian roulette — in other words you may or may not kill yourself if you take that risk.

I am not innocent to speeding as I found myself averaging over 60kph. However, after getting two speeding tickets a couple years ago for the first time in about 25 years, I now try to go no faster than 50 or 30.

We need a Police presence handing out speeding tickets, which will gradually slow people down. We need to eliminate the third lane by making it illegal to overtake anything other than a parked car on the side of the road. Stopped cars in traffic are NOT PARKED.

We need random breathalyser checks every day morning and night. I was in another country a couple of years ago and we were stopped and checked at about 11am on the way to play golf and stopped again four hours later on the way home on the same stretch of road. The first stop was a deterrent to drink — not that we planned to.

We also need the police presence to stop people driving through stop signs and red lights and using cell phones while driving or riding.

ONE road fatality is too many and if we continue this year the way we have started, we will end up with 52 (one per week) if not more. Do any of us want that to happen? The Police need to do their part NOW not later whether the money is there or not.

We, the road users, need to do our part and slow down and obey the rules of the road. Speak to your family and friends and tell them you love them and do not want to lose them due to a preventable death on our narrow roads. I am going to do my part and I challenge you to do yours.

John E. Thorne

Southampton