ARE there really so many careless drivers living in the Tavistock/Plymouth area, who drive across Dartmoor and managed to kill 53 animals this year alone? (Times, October 31).

Have driving standards dropped so badly?

Not for over 50 years has so much annual carnage been reported.

The rot set in years ago, when if memory serves correctly, a macadamised or stone chippings surface was replaced, and the steam roller made a redundant, in favour of a hack ribbon of Tarmac.

'Cats eyes' were undoubtedly a bonus, car speeds increased as a consequence.

If all moorland roads were to have a roughened surface, would it not distinguish them from main roads, lead to reduced speeds, reflect light better than tarmac, provide work for local quarries and make drivers realise they are on the moor and in the country.

Of course racing cyclists would have to hop onto mountain bikes to save their tyres — but they do that anyway.

Anne Crampton

Okehampton