THE Echo carries many reports of the ‘No Excuse’ campaign as an effective action against criminality on our local roads.

We have also seen the recent introduction of £100 on-the-spot fines for motorists. In a UK population of 60 million (probably no more than 45 million of whom drive), over 5million driving offences are registered every year, year in, year out.

That’s not including more than 7.5 million parking offences. Even with this level of enforcement, dangerous lawlessness is rife. The selfish attitudes of drivers that accompany this reckless endangerment are clear to see from reading the online Echo forums.

While I fully support the intentions and efforts of the police in trying to make the roads safer, they are hampered by having completely ineffectual deterrents. The cost of buying and running a car is less now than 10 years ago – even so, what’s a £100 fine to someone spending thousands every year on motoring?

The police claim their campaign has resulted in a drop in serious accidents – given that petrol sales were down 13.5 per cent last year, the drop in accidents is most probably due simply to fewer miles being driven.

Please, when reporting these ‘facts’, could figures be adjusted for lower road usage? Eleven children will die or be seriously injured on our roads this week. To suggest current police activity is changing this situation is letting us all down.

MIKE CHALKLEY, Cowper Road, Bournemouth