Blues and Twos and 20mph

Never one to miss a chance to diss. our new city centre 20mph area, our local newspaper, the Argus,  just ran a story along the lines of “emergency services might have to slow down a bit which could endanger lives.” My letter challenging this appeared today.  Here is the full version:
“Your story (April 20^th) about emergency services potentially having to slow down when answering calls as a result of the new 20 mph speed limit in Brighton and Hove ignores a couple of crucial points.
First, if motorists are obeying the 20mph limit, those crashes that happen will result in fewer serious injuries – meaning that the emergency services will not have to undertake as many life-saving high speed dashes around the city. Secondly, high speed responses by emergency service vehicles can themselves have serious consequences. As an article in the Emergency Medical Journal of the British Medical Journal has noted, “The risk of road traffic accidents is associated with the increased speed of a vehicle, and this phenomenon equally applies to responding emergency vehicles.”
It was unfortunate that Hove MP Mike Weatherley described the slow-down as “an arbitrary change that might put lives at risk,” when the evidence shows that it is more likely that the 20mph speed limit will not just save lives, but also increase the quality of life for everybody who visits, lives in, or works in, Brighton and Hove.”