GOVERNMENT policies towards drivers are the equivalent of ‘yelling in English at someone who only speaks French’, a leading campaigner has claimed.

Mark McArthur-Christie, director of policy for the Association of British Drivers, warned there was too much focus on external controls to keep motorists in check, rather than training them to be better drivers in the first place.

Speed cameras, road humps, chicanes and other initiatives acted as ‘substitutes for thinking’ he said, adding: ‘If you got drivers to engage their brains, then you would not need all these things.

‘How many companies encourage their drivers when they get it right, such as when they have been accident-free for a few years? There is a lot of enforcement, but not a lot of encouragement.’