Slow thinking

Published on 18/08/2012 00:00

Further to Kit Fraser’s letter (16 August) I think we should praise the responsible drivers who wait patiently for the next dual carriageway section of the A9 to pass the lorries safely.

Impatient dangerous overtaking to save a few minutes in your journey can lead to serious accidents, which have led to so many tragic deaths and permanent injuries.

I think that most drivers, 
including myself, have overtaken when we should not have done so and have realised that we were lucky not to have had an accident.

Hugh M Mackenzie

Bonnethill Road

Pitlochry

Kit Fraser wants police to ­target drivers who sit behind slow-moving heavy vehicles on the A9 leaving inadequate space for other vehicles to overtake them and, presumably, the slow ­vehicle ahead.

In fact, that is a recipe for accidents. Many collisions are due to reckless overtaking out of frustration.

It would be more appropriate for the police to target the slow vehicle and require it to pull over to allow faster following traffic to clear.

When towing a caravan, I always pulled over when there were more than a few vehicles behind me. The drivers of slow commercial vehicles rarely do this.

Unfortunately, on many roads there are insufficient lay-bys to enable a driver to do this. So the road authorities could do more to help.

Steuart Campbell

Dovecot Loan

Edinburgh