Letter: Lessons to be learnt from minibus crash

Sir: I have driven 750,000 motorway kilometres in France, Italy and Spain. I am very susceptible to feeling sleepy behind the wheel. Every 30 kilometres or so in these countries it is possible to pull in to a 'rest area'. The mesmeric nature of motorway driving can induce a feeling of drowsiness, regardless of how good a night's sleep one may have had the night before.

Our motorways have few service areas and nowhere for the driver to rest in between. It is not just petrol and refreshment that are needed - more often than not, it is merely to stop and rest.

When the Government sells off our motorway network (which it surely will do in due course), perhaps one of the stipulations of sale might be the provison of rest areas at least every 30 miles. The Department of Transport continues to fail to do so.

Yours sincerely,

CHARLIE WAITE

Gillingham, Dorset