Madam, - Vincent Browne's cast-iron assertion (Opinion, July 19th) that there would be no deaths on the roads if every vehicle were preceded by someone waving a red flag might apply in the Netherlands, but would still not be effective in hilly Ireland.
When such measures were in place in 1899, Edwin Sewell broke a wheel on a hill in Harrow and careered downwards into a brick wall, being killed immediately. He was the first driver to die in a road accident in the UK.
Incidentally, the dubious honour of being the world's first victim of an automobile accident is thought to belong to Mary Ward of Offaly. She was an outstanding scientist specialising in microscopy and was a cousin of the astronomer Lord Rosse. In 1869, when travelling in a steam carriage which had been designed by her cousin she was thrown from the vehicle when it hit a bump in the road. She was crushed by a wheel and died instantly. At the age of 42 her potential was unfulfilled, just like that of so many of today's crash victims. - Yours, etc,
KEVIN O'SULLIVAN, Letterkenny, Co Donegal.