DEFIANT mum Sally Thompson has come up with a bright idea to take a stand against speeding drivers on rural roads.Fed up with dodging speeding cars as she walked through her village with her young son, Mrs Thompson has decided to fight back in style and has designed high visibility tabards and t-shirts to remind motorists to slow down.

DEFIANT mum Sally Thompson has come up with a bright idea to take a stand against speeding drivers on rural roads.

Fed up with dodging speeding cars as she walked through her village with her young son, Mrs Thompson has decided to fight back in style and has designed high visibility tabards and t-shirts to remind motorists to slow down.

And part of the profit raised from the new venture will go to road safety charity Brake.

Mrs Thompson said: “I first really noticed when my son Wilfred was born and I would push him in his pram through Charsfield and these cars would come racing past - it was quite astonishing how they would speed up once they got past the houses, even though it was still 30mph.

“I know we are all guilty sometimes of suddenly looking at the speedo and not realising what speed we were doing but really there is no excuse and it can be extremely dangerous for those who are on foot - you feel really vulnerable with these cars racing past.

“I decided it was time to stop moaning about it and put my money where my mouth is and so I came up with the idea of t-shirts and tabards for walkers.

“The idea is to remind drivers of the speed and also to make the walker more visible.”

Mrs Thompson, a freelance marketing manager, who lives with her husband Simon, a freelance carpenter, and their son, who is 17 months old, at The Street, Charsfield, said she had noticed a difference since she started wearing the tabard in the village.

She said: “Every time I go out I have been surprised at the significant effect the tabard seems to have and I have certainly felt cars slowing down as they come up behind me.”

She is giving ten per cent of the money she makes from the tabards and t-shirts - which feature a slow down message or 30mph sign - to road safety charity Brake, which works to prevent death and injury on the roads through education and campaigning, and cares for people who are bereaved or affected by serious injury in a road crash.

The tabards are £17.95 and t-shirts £14.95 available via www.damselfly.biz

What do you think would slow down drivers travelling on Suffolk's roads? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN, or e-mail EveningStarLetters@eveningstar.co.uk

FASTFACTS: Danger on the roads

More than 3,500 people are killed on Britain's roads ever year - ten families receive a visit from a police officer with the news they dread every day.

In addition, more than 33,000 suffer serious injuries in crashes every year, including brain damage, loss of limbs, facial disfigurement and paralysis.

Experts reckon there is a one in 200 chance of being killed on the roads - and you are far more likely to die in a car accident than a plane crash.

Those most at risk are pedestrians, cyclists, motorbike and moped riders.

Source: Brake