FLASH FORWARD

My first experience of the new 40km/h rule with stationary flashing-lights emergency/ police vehicles came in an 80km/h zone, divided road. I was behind a truck in the right lane, and we were both passing a slower bus in the left lane. Suddenly, both the bus and truck braked sharply, which wasn’t an issue for me as I wasn’t tailgating and was doing my best to drive the road ahead (though there was no chance of getting advanced notice of the impending speed restriction). The Hiace behind me, which would have been in a better position to see ahead than I, and which was travelling much closer to me than ideal, didn’t react quickly to the braking requirement and, if I hadn’t left the room ahead to allow me to ease off the brake to accommodate him, could well have rear-ended me.

There were several occasions in the preceding kilometre or more that motorists coming the other way could have warned us about what was ahead with a simple light flash, but as we all know, this practice is definitely frowned upon by the police as a way to deny them revenue and as such is, I think, illegal.

I propose that such a light flash not only be made legal, but encouraged, to inform drivers approaching such a scene to reduce their speed in advance and so reduce the likelihood of pile-ups that could result, especially in higher speed areas. Thoughts? Brett Pember, email

We’re firmly of the opinion that this whole process needs a serious rethink and suspect that data will demonstrate that it’s causing more harm than good. – Ed

“I propose that such a light flash not only be made legal, but encouraged”