Speed kills, everybody seems to be saying these days - from the politicians to your letter writers.

Unfortunately, while speed can be a contributory factor in accidents on our roads, speed in itself is not the killer.

Cathy Goodman (Letters, May 23) complains about speeding drivers on the A27 and comments on the 60mph speed limit on the road. If that is the case, I suggest her failure to note the speed limit is, in fact, more dangerous than a driver doing 80mph in good weather conditions despite the latter being illegal.

For many years, the national speed limit on dual carriageways has stood at 70mph.

While at 60mph, she may not cause too much of a hazard, the speed differential between someone at the speed limit and, say, a driver at 50mph could potentially cause an accident - but whose fault is it that the slower driver fails to maintain adequate progress - something for which you can fail your driving test?

A simple fact - inappropriate speed kills. Inappropriate speed is dangerous driving, not speeding - 20mph past a school may be inappropriate but, unfortunately, it is not illegal in most situations.

Speed cameras do not detect inappropriate speed, nor do they detect dangerous driving.

Only a fully staffed, efficient, traffic division of Sussex Police can make our roads safer to use but even this would have been unlikely to prevent the horrific scenes on the A23 last week.

In case anybody wishes to question my experience, I have been driving a variety of motor vehicles since 1998, have a clean driving licence and have not been involved in any accidents while driving.

Why? Because I am aware of what is appropriate speed, not because I religiously stick to the speed limit.

-Simon Benson, Hove