Sir, - Colm O'Brien's letter (September 25th) suggests that installing speed governors on automobiles in the Republic will significantly lower road deaths. It is a simplistic answer to a complex problem and evokes several questions:
- Who will be responsible for ensuring that the vehicles have the governor installed and working properly?
- Who will determine the speed at which the governor will be set?
- Will it increase the time spent passing slower vehicles, thus making it more likely a head-on collision will occur?
- Will it somehow compel all the passengers to use seat belts?
In my view, the application of a mechanical device to regulate the speed of an automobile will not decrease the number of road fatalities and may in fact have the opposite effect.
Only when someone invents a device that will inject a mixture of responsibility and common sense into the driver will the number of road deaths decline. - Yours, etc., Edward D. Rafferty,
Grattan Terrace, Grogan's Road, Wexford.