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In one sense the reduction of the Easter weekend death toll to 10 people is good news, the number killed being just over half the number killed on our roads in the same weekend last year.

But when we look at those 10 people we quickly realise that the toll was 10 people too many.

The police had a lot of manpower on the highways, and this is one of the reasons why there was no major fatal accident on a main road. Most drivers are careful. The small minority who refuse to accept that the Highway Code lays down the law and offers many best practices can be cowed into submission by being pulled over by the police.

As we have said before, our law does lay down quite steep fines, jail terms and other penalties for traffic offences. The problem is not so much the need for harsher punishment for infringing the law but the need to catch those who break the rules.

The only legal improvement we see that would be useful is a points system, where points are awarded for the more minor infractions of the law and the licence suspended for a while when the total reaches 10 or 20 points.

The main improvement required is giving the police adequate resources to catch those who break the law. More speed traps, more patrolling cars or motorbikes, and a good supply of breathalysers would tame our roads rather quickly.

The need for this is seen in who was killed over the holiday. The police report that most of those who died were pedestrians hit by vehicles on minor urban roads. We all know the problems.

Drivers complain that there are many pedestrians wearing dark clothes, walking on the edge of the road instead of the verge, walking with their backs to the traffic, and late at night quite often being a bit unsteady on their feet.

Pedestrians complain that many cars are going far too fast, that the verges are impassible being under long grass and weeds, and that, late at night, many drivers are fairly obviously well over the alcohol limit.

Everyone needs to be more careful. Improvements are possible. There was a time when every year a fair number of cyclists were killed at night. Security companies and the publishing houses who use cyclists to deliver newspapers then issued cheap reflective vests. Suddenly the death toll dropped dramatically. Drivers could see cyclists.

We need campaigns to help our pedestrians stay alive. If they wore a reflective sash or vest, or even just had a large white hanky in their hand, and walked facing oncoming traffic, then fewer would be hit. Drivers need to be far more alert about pedestrians. It is odd that someone can pass driving tests and be licensed without ever having a driving lesson at night. Many drivers are not aware of the dangers of night driving.

Random breathalyser testing has been found to be a really effective way of cutting accident rates, and especially night accidents, in many countries.

Once again it is a problem of police resources. A few extra cars cruising the back roads and pulling over the bad drivers while giving advice to dark-clothed pedestrians weaving their way on the left-side of the roads could help tremendously.

Even the cycle patrols could give that advice, and static roadblocks along roads leading from bars could be equipped with breathalysers.

It is noticeable that there are far fewer traffic police on the roads after dark than during day shift hours.

Cutting accident rates and death tolls on the roads is not going to be easy. It requires a long campaign. But we need that campaign. If we had the same accident rates as the countries with the toughest law enforcement, then we would lose about three people a month on our roads, and perhaps just one over Easter. It is possible.