SIR – Awkward as they may be, the proposed restrictions on young drivers can’t come soon enough if it means lives will be saved.

Although my belief is that the cars of today are too powerful for the inexperienced to handle safely.

With almost every model, an overhead cam plus fuel injection engine, with power steering, five or six speed overdrive gearboxes, loaded with sophisticated electronic gadgetry – ABS brakes, traction control, etc – which can give a false sense of security to new drivers, the terrible toll of often fatal accidents is no surprise.

Compare that to my first car in 1963, ie a 1951 Ford Anglia with side valve engine, a ‘choke’, puny six-volt battery often needing the starting handle on a frosty morning, cable brakes and a top speed of only 50mph – downhill!

But in my opinion another factor encouraging bad driving habits must be BBC’s Top Gear programme, where presenters suggest and do outrageous things, but on a private airfield with plenty of expert back-up to keep them out of trouble. This ought to be severely curtailed.

Although the heads of young people today must be spinning as unscrupulous politicians mess about continually with the age of consent for various activities, eg buying alcohol or tobacco, voting in elections, becoming an MP, leaving school, driving etc, when if they made it the same for everything – 21 or even 18 – people would know where they stood.

D S Boyes, Rodley Lane, Leeds