Sir, – The Road Safety Association, in its ads on TV and radio, tells us to “Slow down, slow down, slow down”, when what it should be saying is “Pay attention, pay attention, pay attention”.
Slowing down is of course, good advice and may reduce the effects of (but won’t prevent) an accident, if the road user is not paying attention.
Paying attention will probably prevent the accident from happening in the first place.
Paying attention to what’s going on outside the car and anticipating what might happen and being prepared to react, is a far better way of reducing road deaths than simply slowing down, but hitting another vehicle/road user due to not paying attention to what’s going on outside.
You should also be driving at an appropriate speed for the road involved, of course.
– Yours, etc,
DAVID DORAN
Bagenalstown,
Co Carlow.