Letter: A message for phone users

Sir: How about the mobile phone companies ("A word in your ear about mobile phones", 24 May) arranging a special code to be tapped into the phone just before the owner drives off? As with the current answering service, the caller would hear a recorded message and perhaps a short bleep would alert the driver that a call needed returning as soon as there was parking space available. As you said, portable telephones are now everywhere and no longer beloved status symbols. The message "I cannot answer my phone while I am driving but will call you back as soon as I can pull off the road" would give the owner the double satisfaction of importance and righteousness - an inducement far more likely to solve the phone / driving problem than extra legislation.

F M BASLEY

Sidcup, Kent