LAURA CARTLEDGE: The road can be a scary place '“ so people just need to concentrate

Lowered cars and blacked-out windows are just not for me either – they just make me wonder how they get over speedbumps, or indeed see them.

If I did ever want to pimp my Volkswagen, it would be to add a personalised horn.

And even then I am not talking about one Starsky and Hutch would be proud of.

Oh no, I would like one which could be tailored for the occasion – or rather the idiot it is aimed at.

See, road rage I can do. Well, to a point – I like to go for the sarcastic thumbs-up instead of other hand signals.

But, joking aside, the road can be a scary place.

I can’t remember the last time I turned on the radio and an accident wasn’t being reported somewhere.

In fact you may have seen on the Observer website on Monday that 40 crashes happened in less than eight hours in Sussex.

While that figure is staggering, it isn’t a complete surprise.

We are all in such a rush most of the time.

Our minds are somewhere else –whether it is on what we are having for dinner or the conversation in the back seat.

It’s not like most of us mean to be bad drivers; we are just human.

But having done some research sadly it is that ‘human error’ which accounts for 95 per cent of collisions.

And in 2011 five to six people a day lost their lives as a result.

Which, as far as I can see by putting those two figures together, means they are largely preventable.

I am not trying to lecture. It just made me think.

The thing is that little bit extra makes a massive difference.

We’ve all seen the campaigns on TV.

At 30mph ten per cent of people who get hit will die. At 40mph that raises to 40 per cent.

But we have to remember that when in the driving seat.

Twitter: @LSCartledge