Sir.-I am writing with regard to the Reading rail disaster, to wish a speedy recovery to all the injured passengers and to send my condolences to all the family and friends of the victims.

I hope the family of the car driver is not hounded and harassed by the public but supported through this harrowing time.

Due to this, I started to think how these railway crossings could be made safer.

Over the past few years there have been numerous near misses and accidents on the rail network, mainly at crossings.

I believe this accident could have been avoided by cutting the speed of the train from about a quarter-of-a-mile away from the crossing.

By halving the speed of the train on Saturday evening, from what we were told was about 90mph, to 40mph, it would have given the train driver more time to react.

Although this will add extra time to the journeys, lives could be saved at a very low cost to the rail network.

There is, perhaps, also a need for extra lighting at unmanned crossings.

I believe if these measures were put in place, they would cut out 90 per cent of railway crossing accidents.

-Gary Paul Cox, Attwood Close, Basingstoke.