SLOWING down speeding motorists really is a matter of life and death.

All kinds of measures are being adopted throughout the country to stop drivers flouting speed limits and putting others at risk with their dangerous behaviour.

The problems are obvious where shops, schools and housing estates mean plenty of pedestrians of all ages crossing roads.

In some countries like the United States most drivers automatically slow down almost to walking pace in such built up areas.

Here, sadly, mobile speed cameras, signs, road markings, chicanes and even speed bumps fail to deter some idiots from driving as if they are on a racetrack.

Risks are magnified when the nature of an area changes as in Hapton where the construction of 57 new homes opposite the village school poses obvious new dangers.

These dangers are heightened by drivers who have just come off the nearby M65 motorway and failed to properly adjust their speed - and the fact that astonishingly there are no signs to alert people to the road's 30mph speed limit.

As county councillor Marcus Johnstone says even with new signs and a site for a mobile speed camera there is still a lot to be done to slow people down throughout the village as well as on Manchester Road.

There have already been two tragic fatal road accidents in the area this year.

Action must follow quickly to minimise the risk of any more.