Richard Antwell, of Khartoum Place, Kingsbridge, writes:

I wonder if I might through the organ of your newspaper bring to the attention of local motorists a few facts worthy of a reminder.

Inside your vehicle and to the left-hand side of most ­steering wheels, you will find a thin stalk protruding horizontally. This stalk, when moved upwards, causes orange lights to flash on and off on the right-hand side of your car, thereby alerting the world around you that your vehicle may be about to lurch to the right.

Conversely, moving this stalk downwards makes the orange lights flash on and off on the left side of your car, ­providing those around you with the supposition that you could be veering to the left.

This tip I have found greatly reduces the likelihood of ­running over pedestrians or small dogs, or even colliding with other baffled road users.

All cars less than 115 years old have been fitted with these devices, so to my mind it is essential that drivers use them.

Handily, when your vehicle’s manoeuvre has been completed the lever will usually, but not always, return to the off ­position, automatically turning off the orange lights.

However, it is advisable to check that your car has in fact done this, as driving all the way to Plymouth with your right indicator flashing may cause confusion or irritation… or both.

It is also worth noting that the pedal on the far right-hand side of your car can, when depressed, be used to increase the speed of your vehicle. This is of particular importance if you drive a very small car, perhaps just to the shops and back.

You may also wear an old hat and have a tartan blanket on your rear parcel shelf.

Anyway, standing on the ‘loud pedal’ does indeed make your car louder but it also makes it go faster. Good luck.

Finally, on the upright stick between the seats you will find a knob with numbers on it – usually numbered one to five. Where possible try to move this stick through the various ­numbers, ideally in order, until you achieve the highest possible number.

You will find that 20mph can soon be achieved and on longer journeys can even be ­surpassed.

There is another useful ­property of this stick. If you look carefully you will see that one of the numbers is in fact a letter – the letter ‘R’. This is worth experimenting with as it can make all the difference when driving around the South Hams, because pushing the stick into ‘R’ makes the car go backwards. Yup. This means that when confronted with a much larger vehicle, maybe towing a caravan or a boat down a narrow, muddy lane, you will be able to use ‘R’ to move your car backwards into a passing place, thereby ­allowing the driver of the 4x4 with caravan, boat or jet ski to proceed on their way to Salcombe in time for their Waitrose shop to be delivered.

Just a word of caution: unless you are driving an automatic vehicle you should try to get into the habit of using the pedal on the left when ‘going between numbers’ – this has been proven to greatly increase the life of your gearbox.

I hope people won’t mind me sharing these driving hints and tips – I have found that they have greatly enhanced my driving experience since I came out of hospital and my legs came out of plaster.