HIGH road accident and death rate in the county? I am not surprised. In some places it is not just a matter of cutting road verges (letters, July 14).

One by-product of the many speed limits and cameras on main roads in Herefordshire may be that aspiring drivers are driven to test their expertise round bends on narrow roads at maximum speeds as close to the hedge as possible.

Pedestrians with children and dogs, ponies, cyclists, or old people who can no longer drive and who are taking a walk, are not taken into account.

Here, in one small village (Elton), there are two bad double bends and no grass verge available to walk on - only a very narrow tarmac road.

The parish councillor says that we cannot have a speed limit, because there is no sidewalk or pavement.

So, because we do not have one safety measure, we cannot have another. Yet, the problem demands "sleeping policemen", the village is now a much-used regular run between Ludlow and the recently enlarged (and secondary school endowed) village of Wigmore.

In Elton, there are two families, with four and three children, 40 yards apart, who cannot visit each other socially without parental supervision, because of the busy road.

Almost everyone in the village has dogs and several children have ponies - but are afraid to ride out on the road.

My husband and I live 350 yards from a safe bridle path but we do not have the bottle to walk the dog or ride as far as that path.

Vehicles round the bends so fast that they even bite into the hedge bank. What could happen to our children, old people, walkers and riders?

Is Herefordshire County Council waiting for a few deaths before taking action?

SALLY FIELDING,

Elton, Nr Ludlow.