There was another accident on Madeira Drive, Brighton, last week, after which a teenage girl had to be cut out of a car.

This makes more than 60 accidents in the past five-and-a-half years on that road. Fatalities have been way in excess of the three widely reported.

One alone caused four deaths. The experimental traffic order allowing the road to be closed at certain times is welcome but it can-not solve the problem.

Speeding happens at all times of day and night. Madeira Drive was built as a racetrack and is associated with speed.

When the Madeira Drive Action Group presented a 2,000-signature petition last summer and lobbied the full Brighton and Hove City Council, Councillor Ian Duncan's response indicated perhaps this association needs to come to an end.

Yet the speed trials took place as normal just a few weeks ago.

Our daughter Harriet was hit by a speeding car on Madeira Drive on the night of December 22, 2000. She sustained multiple critical injuries, was unconscious for almost two weeks and spent more than two months in hospital.

She has had to endure the distress of a criminal process which ended in a conviction only for careless driving, with a £250 fine and six penalty points for the driver.

She had to sit her GCSEs in hospital. She is still having operations.

She was a talented sportswoman, representing the city in athletics and the county in football. She hoped to study for a sports-related career. This is no longer open to her.

We have no idea how she survived, except for the fantastic care she received at the Royal Sussex County Hospital.

She is also a strong, determined young woman. We are very lucky to have her. Other parents have lost their teenagers on that road.

Why will the council not grasp this issue properly? Surely Madeira Drive could make a much stronger contribution to a regenerated seafront free from its associations with death, danger and antisocial behaviour?

When Harriet met the young driver of the car some months later, he justified his speed by telling her "everyone goes too fast down there". Imagine how this made her feel.

-Pauline Jordan and Peter Wrench, Millers Road, Brighton