I hate telling people how to drive, writes Rural Affairs Editor Nathan Rous. But, let’s face it, I’m a bloke and that’s what blokes do.

We laugh if a hapless motorist fails time and time again to reverse into a parking space. We steer clear of those behind the wheel of a courtesy car because their track record is obviously a little suspect, and we are a touch more liberal with the horn and the hand gesture than the fairer sex should anyone in front of us fail to indicate.

As for map-reading . . . actually, don’t get me started on map-reading.

The impatience of young males means they invariably approach junctions at speed, pay little regard to fellow road users and imagine traffic lights to be the starting grid at Silverstone.

Okay, so I’ve tarnished many of you with the same brush, but those in the Sunday-driver bracket probably haven’t made it to the newsagents yet to read this column so there is no chance of offending them.

The reality is that our ballot-shy Government is deliberating once more about reducing the speed limit on our rural roads. A new campaign for the Department of Transport has flooded TV channels and newspapers with images that are both graphic and confrontational. Enough to make you step off the gas you would think.

Unfortunately there is little point in spending millions on slowing traffic down on our country lanes when the unteachable continue to drive in the same manner.

We could litter the roads with sleeping policeman (given the increasing crime rate aren’t all policemen sleeping?), chicanes designed to slow vehicles down, more infernal speed cameras and other traffic-calming measures but, given that there is barely any traffic on our country lanes, what is there to calm?

Rural roads with their twisting carriageways, blind bends and hidden dips have always been a magnet for the speedsters. You see, the traffic calming employed here is often death. There’s nothing like a fatal accident to make you slow down.

The Government’s THINK! speed campaign points out that the risk of being fatally injured in a crash on a rural road is three times the risk on an urban road. And the fact that many rural road accidents involve just one car suggest that drivers have been pushing too hard.

Yes, there are fewer accidents in rural areas but it’s much the same as a plane crash: they are few and far between but when they do happen the outcome is generally grim.

“The national 60mph speed limit is a maximum, not an expectation, and drivers must match their speed to the road characteristics and weather conditions they are experiencing as well as factoring in unpredictable hazards – like sharp bends, limited visibility or even animals – which can require a quick reaction,” said road safety minister Jim Fitzpatrick.

Shropshire’s roads are no more a death trap than those in any other part of Britain. It is the people that are accidents waiting to happen, not the roads. So we have to change our mindset if we are to tackle the problem.

No amount of money tinkering with the Tarmac will make a blind bit of difference if the motorists continue to drive as if they are invincible. In Shropshire, the statistics show that dozens of people each year are not.

So next time you are stuck behind a tractor, thank your lucky stars . . . the driver is keeping you alive.