I was dismayed (but not surprised) to read your article in the Helston Packet on March 29th headed “Fire engine from air station gets stuck in roadside ditch”.

I was aware also of the incident in December when a fire engine from RNAS Culdrose overturned on the same road blocking the road to traffic for several hours. This had a detrimental affect on trade to local businesses on the Lizard until the road re-opened.

A few weeks ago I was driving on the A3083 Lizard Road heading towards Helston. Suddenly a fire engine travelling from Predannack Airfield approached the junction of the A3083 at speed and turned onto the Lizard Road without looking. This forced me to brake really hard to avoid a collision.

To my shock and amazement a second fire engine following almost did exactly the same, seeing me at the last minute and jamming on its brakes. This left the fire engine halfway across my lane forcing me to swerve onto the other side of the road.

Fortunately there was no traffic coming the other way otherwise I would either have hit the side of the fire engine or had a head on collision with a vehicle coming the other way. These large old heavy vehicles are pulling out onto a 60 mph road!

The purpose of my letter is to draw attention to the relevant personnel at RNAS Culdrose that clearly the drivers need some training on how to drive these vehicles safely before someone gets hurt or God forbid killed.

Three incidents in three to four months involving these vehicles is more than a coincidence and something must be done about it before it’s too late.

Name and address supplied

In response a Royal Navy spokesperson said: “We can confirm that fire response vehicle drivers based at Royal Naval Air Station Culdrose are fully trained to drive on public highways. Any incidents involving the vehicles are taken extremely seriously and fully investigated.”