Behind the wheel, elderly drivers are as dangerous as drunks

Letters to the editor: our readers share their views. Please send your letters to letters@independent.co.uk

‘My wife was gifted a horrific spinal injury by a elderly driver who should never have been behind the wheel’

Drunk drivers are castigated, but elderly drivers are facilitated (“Ministers urged to act as figures show surge in fatal crashes among elderly drivers”, Wednesday 29 November).

My wife was gifted a horrific and permanent spinal injury by an elderly driver who should never have been behind the wheel.

In the court case, the driver was convicted but let off with a slap on the wrist, after the judge spent two hours trying to make the perpetrator feel better about what she had done.

When will this stop?

Stephen Woodhouse

Address supplied

Ticket to park

Surely, the simple and obvious way to rationalise parking and avoid companies imposing unfair penalty charges is to insist on all charges being levied on exit (“Letters: More people must take issue with parking charge notices”, Sunday 1 December).

The technology has existed for many years that allows parkers to park up and pay later. This would obviate the issuing of the vast majority of PCNs, which unfairly enrich those who administer the car parks.

Colin Burke

Cartmel, Cumbria

Utterly bananas

What is art? A real definition is too broad for the letters page, but it once involved paint or a chisel.

Modern art now involves a banana, and then its consumption (“Crypto mogul eats banana he bought for $6.2 million”, Sunday 1 December).

Is this art – or a strange method of getting publicity after spending millions on a banana and some sticky tape?

Maybe I need to broaden my knowledge of art or to get an orange and a nail to create my own. If you have a spare five million to sponsor me… thanks, but wake up and give it to charity.

Dennis Fitzgerald

Melbourne, Australia

A matter of life and death

When the assisted dying bill gets to the Lords (“Assisted dying bill passes after vote, paving the way for historic change”, Saturday 30 November), there will be members entitled to speak purely by virtue of their prominence in various religions.

They will have views on the origin and sanctity of life that are very different from the vast majority of the rest of us. But why should we listen to them because they have an imaginary friend?

This is a serious matter it needs to be debated in a serious way by people who are properly qualified.

Bill Bradbury

Lostock, Bolton