HAVE you noticed that some motorists are becoming impatient, intolerant or even downright dangerous?

There have always been people like this you will say, but it does seem to be getting worse.

Over the last year I have had two life-threatening, near misses (in a car), had to take evasive action twice when someone pulled across the front of me (on a motorbike) and various hooting and/or fingers up out of windows when, as far as I could see, I hadn't broken the accepted rules of the road or made a mistake.

Then, of course, there is taxi driver who runs into the front of your car, and swears it was you who ran into him.

I will admit to the odd mistake while riding/driving, but to the best of my knowledge that didn't apply in any of these cases, as I have said.

One has to ask the question, why? Are more people becoming inconsiderate of others, are they under pressure or in a tearing hurry, or do they just think that number one is all important and blow everybody else?

It could be all these things in one proportion or another, but one word has not been mentioned so far and that is training (or rather the lack of it).

As a safety camera officer remarked quite rightly during a public talk, you can get a driving licence at 17 (or 16 with a moped) and never have to take one jot of further training or refresher for the whole of your driving life in this country.

This is a lamentable state of affairs, as he implied, and the obvious reason that there is no compulsory further training is money.

The Government can't seem to see that there could be a trade-off between the money spent on such a scheme and the fortune required by the NHS, among others, in picking up the pieces after accidents.

I do wonder if anybody has done any research or calculations in this respect? The trouble is I fear that the priorities in this case are all wrong, and the exercise is in crisis management rather than prevention.

Still, it doesn't take official training to be patient and civil, and I would hope that this in itself would make a difference to this problem.

I RUTTER

(Member of the IAM)

Southwick