Why would you text? Is your car on the best-seller list? Farewell Dave; Lucky Owen

I DON’T care what anyone says, texting at the wheel as you join a busy motorway is asking for serious trouble.

I’m not going to bore you with a rant about the dangers. We are all too aware of them, or should be.

But when I saw a young man engrossed in tip-tapping away as he joined the heavy flow of M50 traffic, I had to look again to make sure I wasn’t imagining things.

Apart from the madness of the exercise, one question kept coming back to me: What in God’s name could be so urgent that would make it imperative for that driver to take his eyes off everything else and risk death or injury? It beggars belief.

● I am truly sorry to hear of the death of David O’Driscoll ( pictured) former director of Henry Ford and Son Ltd.

He was a true gentleman, a font of knowledge and always so helpful and cheerful. He was wonderful company.

Our thoughts and prayers are with Barbara, his two daughters, Aideen and Carol-Ann, all his family and his many friends. He will be missed. RIP.

● Some interesting data on buying trends across Europe from analyst JATO Dynamics. The figures reflect trends in the marketplace and show where we are putting our money. They detail the best-selling cars in Europe by their market segment. Is your car in there? Here’s a snapshot (as reported by Autocar). City car: Fiat 500. Supermini: Renault Clio. Family hatchback: Volkswagen Golf. Mid-size saloon/estate: Volkswagen Passat. Executive: Mercedes E-Class. Luxury: Mercedes S-Class. Small SUV: Renault Captur. Mid-size SUV: Nissan Qashqai. Large SUV: Peugeot 5008.

Small premium SUV: BMW X1. Mid-size premium SUV: Mercedes GLC. Large premium SUV: BMW X5 (beats Volvo XC90 and Range Rover Sport for first place).

Small MPV: Fiat 500L. Mid-size MPV: Volkswagen Touran. Large MPV: Mercedes V-Class.

Small sports car: Mazda MX-5. Mid-size sports car: Audi TT. Large sports car: Porsche 911.

● Congratulation to Owen Laverty, who won a new car in the Circle K (formerly Topaz Energy) raffle. Ireland’s largest fuel retailer made the announcement recently.

The raffle was designed to raise funds for Circle K’s charity partner, The Jack & Jill Children’s Foundation.

Owen, from Co Dublin, gets a new SEAT Ateca SUV, worth €30,000. Earlier this year, customers of the Circle K network and SEAT dealerships bought raffle tickets, and all proceeds went directly to the Foundation, for which Circle K has now raised €350,000 in total.