AS THE road safety debate rages on, Mark Harrison (Letters, July 20) quite incredibly compares speeding motorists to paedophiles.

But one point completely overlooked by him and blinkered friends is the responsibility of the pedestrian.

I nearly killed two people in the space of an hour while driving the other day. Was I speeding? No. Was I using a mobile telephone? No. But, surely, it must have been (nearly) my fault.

Well, it wasn't. One mother chose to test my braking skills at 20mph by allowing her two-year-old child to run into my path as she lagged 20ft behind.

Another caring, loving mum opted for a more outlandish manoeuvre by swinging the child into the road. A classic!

Please bear in mind that these incidents both occurred while I was driving well within the speed limit.

The point is that if I had run these children over, I would now be up for causing death by dangerous driving, despite taking full notice of applicable laws.

When is it not the drivers' fault? And when will we see some statistics that show the figures for pedestrians being at fault? Or would that be politically incorrect? It cannot be the motorists' fault every time.

K TURNER, Whalley Road, Langho, Blackburn.