IN reply to A Telford’s letter (HAS, Jan 9), he said he drove through the Netherlands and Germany during the hours of darkness and saw no vehicles with defective lights, even on the number plates.

Could it be because in those countries people drive according to law and not a highway code?

One such directive is that drivers will carry a full set of filaments for their vehicles so they can replace them if required, a driver can be stopped at any time by the police and told to change any defective light before continuing their journey.

Depending on the demeanour of the driver its ends there or gets a bit hairy, for instance an acquaintance of mine was pulled and because he had no replacement he was told it would cost him a fine of ten marks.

Instead of opening his wallet, he opened his mouth in protest. The policeman, being a gentleman, waited for him to pause for breath and said: “Twenty marks bitte”, more protests, “40 marks bitte”.

When it reached 80 deutchmarks his wife got involved by digging him in the ribs with a sharp elbow saying “shut your mouth and pay the 80 marks you idiot, the next increase will cost you 160 marks or a possible appearance in court.”

As for the state of their roads there is a simple answer to that, they use big trucks with big trailers. Also their politicians think first of their home country and are determined they will succeed and act accordingly. Ours seem to think of themselves. Nuff said.

ME Harris, Darlington.