Are slow drivers a menace on the roads?

AT LAST the Department for Transport has acknowledged that driving too slowly can be as hazardous as speeding because it causes tailbacks and provokes dangerous overtaking. The number of road crash casualties caused by slow drivers has surged by almost a third, causing 175 injuries and two deaths in 2017. I failed a driving test for ‘failing to make normal progress’, so driving too slowly should be treated in the same way as speeding by the police. Many hesitant drivers are elderly and shouldn’t be on the road. Why can’t speed cameras detect driving far too slowly as well as too fast? JULIA PICKLES, Cheltenham, Glos.

BY BEING over-cautious, slow drivers don’t cause accidents. It’s the impatient, risk taking and poor overtaking skills of other motorists that’s the problem. Don’t blame slow drivers for other people’s lack of driving skills. D. M. DEAMER, York.

MY DAILY commute is a 104-mile round trip. I have noticed many drivers avoid the near-side lanes because they are full of potholes. They stick to a fuel-saving 55 mph/ 60 mph and sit in the middle lane. Aggressive drivers who cut in and out of lanes are more likely to cause harm than slow drivers. They do not realise they are steering a two-ton missile capable of causing death and misery in an instant. PETER FAGG, Ramsgate, Kent.

MANY extremely slow drivers fail to keep up with the flow of traffic, but strangely manage to accelerate when traffic lights change to amber, leaving the drivers behind them grinding their teeth at the red light. LIZ DENTON, London SW11.