'Speed camera 'may have caused death crash'' From yesterdays Times.............."A coroner weighed into the national controversy over speed cameras when he suggested that one may have caused a fatal accident by distracting the driver. John Pollard, the Stockport coroner, blamed the death of a 69 year old woman in an accident in Greater Manchester, on the prescence of a camera. The coroner said roadside yellow cameras can distract drivers "even momentarily" who glance upwards and at their speed rather than the road." Blimey! Just imagine, I can't think of all the times I'm distracted whilst driving, 'even momentarily' by things at the roadside, garish neon shop fronts, girls in short skirts, advertising hoardings, road signs, girls in short skirts etc. Mr. Pollard thinks that the sequence of 'look at speed camera, look at speedo, notice you are doing 70 in a 30 zone, brake,' could possibly lead to fatal accidents. What about the sequence of 'Look at advertising hoarding, read Alliance & Leicester advert as follows...... "Get 10 times more interest on your current account* *Min deposit £1,000 per month* *On balances up to £2,500, Ponder whether this is actually better than leaving your £4,354 in the 6.25% High Rate Account at the Skipton, feel a bump, then a second, more solid one, peer in rear view mirror and realise you have run a red light on a pedestrian crossing and run over and killed Mr. Halliwell's guide dog, oh dear, and Mr. Halliwell as well. And Road signs, what about those damned distracting road signs ? How often have you braked, indicated left, then right, then left again before veering across two lanes of traffic to make the junction while thinking "I hope it was the B6518 and not the Biggleswade Bypass" ? Or is that just me ? As for young ladies in short skirts, well, I think we all know just how distracting they can be. Think about it, we spend large amounts of our driving time not looking at the road, but looking for junctions, road signs, checking wing mirrors, rear view mirrors, fiddling around with the radio because a burst of static has wiped out Leeds Uniteds dismal attempts to secure a 0-0 home draw and WOW! Was that a belt or a skirt?! Add to this the dangers posed by the morons who use their mobile phones, shave or apply make-up in traffic, idiots driving with cups of coffee in one hand, slices of pizza or three course mexican take aways, include the people with Megadeth booming from their car stereos so loudly they couldn't hear an approaching DC-10, oh sorry, that last one is me again, but you get the idea. Considering all these dangers, maybe the roads would be just that little bit safer if we all drove a little more slowly, and because people insist on breaking the law, we might just need a few speed cameras to make the roads safer.