Imogen is right, motorists need to slow down!
IN response to the article about cyclist Imogen Cotter (Mail, Thursday), I agree wholeheartedly with Ms Cotter’s calls for motorists to slow down.
I am a commuter cyclist who went back to cycling in 2020 after a 25-year enforced break.
I was a commuter cyclist before for years until 1997 when, just a street away from home, I was rear-ended by a driver who was distracted while he was using his mobile phone.
I am left with a slipped disc in T6-T7 which still affects me today. I was also left with absence seizure epilepsy, but thankfully I have been seizure-free for the past five-and-a-half years.
I was able to return to cycling in February 2020 only because I had been seizure-free for a year-anda-half by then.
Since my return to commuter cycling over the past four years, I have seen too many drivers driving at ridiculously high speeds even when taking corners in my own circular cul-de-sac estate. The speeds of drivers increase once out on ‘the stretch’.
I too suffered from PTSD when I returned, especially cycling along the stretch of road where my 1997 accident occurred.
I am in my final term of studying medical secretarial office and administration skills and for a presentation for one of my modules, I choose the impact of head/spinal injuries among cyclists – those wearing a cycling helmet versus those who don’t wear a cycling helmet.
What I learnt during my research was shocking, staggering and heart-breaking, and the majority of accidents were avoidable.
The figures Ms Cotter mentioned in her interview with your newspaper come as no surprise to me, as I came across the same figures when doing my own research for my presentation.
I would urge drivers to slow down and to put the mobile phone away. It can take up to a minute-and-a-half to two minutes to regain your full concentration on the road after focusing on your mobile.
I hope Ms Cotter will one day return to racing and I would like to wish her every success in her cycling career.
TRACY CURTIS, Greenhills, Dublin.
Childless have rights
THE excellent article by Anonymous (Mail, Wednesday March 27) about childless people being last in the pecking order will no doubt provoke an outpouring of disgust from parents with a sense of entitlement. (Fortunately, there are also reasonable and realistic parents out there.)
Childless people are no more or less likely to be selfish than those with children.
It is not about a mean attitude to family life. It is about challenging the view that there is a league table of those to whom home life matters.
A good citizen and employee, without children, should not be made to feel their personal and home life is of no value. SANDRA M. TOWERS,
by email.
Another fine mess!
HAVING gone through an embarrassing referendum result to try to change our Constitution regarding the definition of the family, the Government is now imposing a Bill towards allowing us to access drinking in licensed premises at all hours of the day and night.
This can only put more pressure on our hospitals and gardaí, the transport system and so on.
When will our leaders ever learn not to try to impose laws without consultation with the vintners, hospitality and other vested parties who are not able to bend over backwards to make this work? It can’t feasibly be done! PÁDRAIG Ó DONNCHA, by email.