SIR, – The tragic death of more young people in a car accident has shocked our communities.
It is so easy to blame them without considering a more human reason for such accidents.
As children, we learn to walk: too fast, too quickly, and we fall, but by experience we learn to cope with the consequences and control our impulse for speed.
At 17, still close to a child’s age, we permit young people the freedom of fast, modern cars to drive around in at speed.
As a child, a bump at 5mph is nothing; at 50mph, the result is sheer horror.
Society must accept the responsibility by directly confronting people over accidents and their fatal consequence before handing out a driving licence.
After passing a test, a short video session should be compulsory.
This would be of a real crash situation, including the sounds and smells.
This may be a brutal introduction to a driving career, but what alternative is there?
Posters, persuasion, police pleas and education have made no impression on the problem.
The only resort left is a direct experience shock, administered before being allowed on the road with a licence to inflict carnage on themselves and others.
I. Montgomery,
Birchbank,
Loch Oire,
Elgin.
SIR, – Your correspondent Dennis Grattan (Letters, July 14) was quite right to suggest that stiffer penalties should be imposed on those who insist on using mobile phones while driving.
But what about the Shearings coach driver that I avoided on the narrow high road between Strathdon and Bridge of Gairn on Friday morning, with steering wheel in one hand, microphone in the other, telling his full load of passengers stories instead of concentrating on the road?
Surely this is quite beyond the pale?
D.J. Fallows,
Garden Lodge,
1 School Gardens,
Dulnain Bridge.
SIR, – I write in support of all angels, whose traditional “share” of the malt whisky industry is under threat from the experts at Diageo (the Press and Journal, July 14).
Is nothing sacred?
As yet unproven, the covering of casks in clingwrap may increase their profits by a small margin, but surely this will serve only to sanitise and erode the traditions and mystique of the whisky industry.
As “custodians of a rich heritage”, can Diageo take the risk that the Archangel Gabriel and his colleagues might consider switching their allegiance?
Perhaps, even now, supping a Bourbon with a rye smile.
Rev Duncan Shaw,
4 Manse Road,
Kinloss.
SIR, – Margot Kennedy’s enthusiasm to save the Midmar Inn (the Press and Journal, July 15) is almost as interesting as her assertion that it is a vital part of her community and heritage.
On all the numerous occasions that my friends and I frequented the inn, I never ever saw her or any of her supporters.
Dave Cooper and Debi Begg tried valiantly to run an excellent pub and restaurant, and the simple truth is that those who spent very little time or money there are now, for some curious reason, complaining.
You really can’t have your cake and eat it.
Neil McArthur,
Blackhillock,
Monymusk.
SIR, – Were it not so sad, it would be quite funny for Prime Minister Gordon Brown to say parents should be held more responsible for their children's actions.
Is it not the case that both the government and the supposed do-gooders have removed parents’ ability to be allowed to be responsible parents, and teach right from wrong?
Yes, children need to be protected, but things have gone so far the other way. It may be the case that it is now the parents/adults who need some form of protection. I don't just mean from the children. I mean from outside interference stifling people’s ability to be responsible parents.
I.J. Balgowan,
2 Jubilee Court,
Stonehaven.