'Be seen to be safe' - Your Letters: February 14

​"I see you!" was the shout when playing hide and seek, followed by the rush to home-base to arrive before the child who had been hiding. Touch base first and the reward was to be the seeker in the next round. The loser had to hide.

When using our roads the winner always needs to be seen, to be safe. There are times when you can't be seen until a driver or rider is on top of a victim - or worse - in contact with one. The results vary from loss of pride/confidence, to death of the victim and damage to the transport. Death cannot be reversed. Its effects on a family and their friends are profound and rarely ending. If it is a less damaging contact, it can still be life-changing, or a cost to the pocket, while earnings are stopped and claims for damages settled, both damage to the injured and to the transport.

The fault is felt by everyone but it may not always be put at the door of a bad driver or rider, but at the fault of not being seen.

We've had some very testing weather. You may be able to see, but can you be seen? Is your transport clean? Often in rural areas it is far from clean, except I hope for the number plates as required by law, but are your lights clean and are they on?

These days most vehicles have driving lights that stay on, but on bikes and some other forms of transport you have to switch them on. Please do so to enable your vehicle to be seen at all times, even when you feel you don't need them. It's you protecting yourself and your family.

For those who walk in duller hours or after dark, please ensure that you can be seen, that all your family can be seen in the poor light or the dark. Yes, wrap up well, but please wear something very bright.

Better lighting may help on roads as areas that are developed enlarge the area where transport is needed. This will affect wildlife, which is already under threat, but perhaps a variation of the lights we use outside our homes to keep us safe could be devised for places with less traffic but plenty of footfall.

Cycle tracks and some country lanes would really benefit. l'm concerned that some tracks, though properly constructed, are no longer fit for purpose as they are not maintained to a good standard. Money would have to been raised to do this. Perhaps it is time to register bicycles and have a charge on them to make their facilities really secure and safe for them at all times. There should be no charge for children, who should already know that they can ride safely, having been on a free course. They would know too that they are causing no pollution and should use all the correct "be seen" clothing, also to use cycleways and not pavements, though some adults don't seem to know this even in our towns.

Name and address supplied

CATS CLASSED AS WILD ANIMALS

In answer to Colin Hubbard’s letter, cats are allowed to poo because they are legally classed as wild animals. The same reason applies if a cat causes a car accident –  their owner isn’t liable and neither is it obligatory to scan for microchip and notify the owner.

It’s difficult to manage where outdoor cats poo but making a sheltered, clean and inviting cat toilet in the garden will help. Of course it’s down to dog and cat owners to keep their pets worm free and also be aware that toxic wormers released into the environment from dog and cat poo is damaging. Doing regular worm counts and clearing up are obvious.

When walking by the river, I often wonder at how I would be liable to a fine if I didn’t clean up after our dogs whilst paddling through raw sewage spilled at our expense from Severn Trent water’s manhole covers...

Claire Kirby, West Mids

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