I write in response to the Downes family whose cat, Pip, was run over by a taxi in Southwick, last Sunday.

Their experience shows how self-absorbed people are increasingly becoming.

If the driver had any degree of concern for others, he would not have been driving so fast in the first place.

Having run Pip over, stopping to get out of his car would have forced him to confront what he had done - far better to carry on and pretend it hadn't happened.

Cars allow people the

luxury of divorcing themselves from the reality of the world outside - but this is no excuse.

Everyone should spend a moment to contemplate what might result in driving fast in a residential area.

To Patricia and family, I send my best wishes and am sure Pip had a loving life.

How many of us drivers spend a moment to reflect about how our driving may affect others, as we climb into our one-ton lumps of metal?

-Richard Marshall, Brighton