The horrific events on the A66 last weekend, where seven people lost their lives including two serving police officers, have quite rightly shocked people across the country.
There are still investigations taking place into exactly what happened and the circumstances leading up to that collision, and I think we need to be very careful about drawing conclusions or making direct comparisons with incidents elsewhere.
However, the tragedy has inevitably started a much wider conversation about dangerous driving, particularly amongst some younger drivers, the glorification of reckless behaviour on social media and the increasing trend of people filming and sharing high speed driving and police pursuits online.
It is a conversation we need to have here in North West Leicestershire too.
For some time now, residents around Castle Donington have had to put up with large organised car cruises. These gatherings can attract significant numbers of vehicles and, while many people attending may simply be genuine car enthusiasts, there is unfortunately a minority whose behaviour goes far beyond admiring modified cars.
Residents have reported excessive noise, racing, speeding, drifting and anti social driving, often late into the evening and early hours of the morning.
Leicestershire Police and North West Leicestershire District Council have been working together to tackle the problem. Public Spaces Protection Orders have been introduced and enforcement action has been taken, including fixed penalty notices and the use of police powers against vehicles being driven anti socially.
I welcome that action. If somebody deliberately uses their vehicle in a way that causes alarm, distress or annoyance, or puts other road users at risk, there should be consequences.
But I am increasingly concerned that dealing with individual locations risks simply moving the problem somewhere else.
Castle Donington might be the focal point for many of these gatherings, but the hundreds of vehicles attending them have to get there and, eventually, they have to leave.
That is where this becomes a much wider North West Leicestershire issue.
Residents in Belton have repeatedly raised concerns with me about Long Lane and Mill Lane being treated like a racetrack. These are rural roads, not racing circuits.
Long Whatton is also affected, with vehicles travelling through the village as they make their way towards the Castle Donington area.
I have received similar concerns about dangerous and anti social driving much further away, including around Grange Road in Hugglescote.
For the residents living alongside these roads, it doesn't really matter whether the eventual gathering takes place several miles away. Their problem is the speeding car outside their house at eleven o'clock at night.
That is why I don't believe we can look at this simply as a Castle Donington car cruise problem.
We need to start looking at the network of roads being used and tackle the behaviour wherever it occurs.
I have been writing to both Leicestershire County Council Highways and Leicestershire Police about these concerns and pressing for more action.
I want to see a coordinated approach involving the police, Highways and our district council Community Safety Team which looks not only at the locations where these gatherings take place, but also the routes being used to travel to and from them.
That could include targeted police operations on known cruise nights, mobile speed enforcement on identified routes, greater intelligence gathering and making full use of ANPR where appropriate.
Police also now have significant powers available to them when dealing with vehicles being used anti socially. Where the evidence exists, I want to see those powers used.
If someone knowingly turns up to an organised event and then decides to race through one of our villages, perform dangerous manoeuvres or use the public highway as their own personal racetrack, losing their vehicle is a pretty powerful deterrent.
There is another element to this which we cannot ignore.
Social media has changed the nature of this behaviour.
There is now considerable national concern about videos showing extreme speeding, dangerous driving and police pursuits being uploaded and shared online. In some cases, dangerous behaviour appears to become entertainment, generating views, likes and notoriety.
I don't believe we should exaggerate that connection or suggest that every young person watching a car video online is going to become a dangerous driver.
But neither should we pretend that social media has no influence.
When reckless behaviour is celebrated and rewarded with attention, there is a danger that somebody else will try to go one better.
Enforcement therefore needs to be accompanied by education.
As Chairman of the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Combined Fire Authority, one area I am particularly keen to explore is making greater use of our Hazard Express resource here in North West Leicestershire.
Hazard Express provides young people with realistic scenarios designed to make them think about risk, consequences and personal safety.
Our firefighters and emergency services unfortunately know better than most what happens when something goes badly wrong on our roads.
Behind every serious collision are families whose lives can change in seconds. There are also firefighters, paramedics and police officers who have to deal with the consequences.
If we can reach young people before they begin driving and make them think twice about taking that unnecessary risk, that education is every bit as important as enforcement.
There is also an important distinction I want to make.
This isn't an attack on young drivers and it certainly isn't an attack on genuine car enthusiasts.
The overwhelming majority of people who enjoy cars, modify their vehicles or attend legitimate organised events do so responsibly. Likewise, the overwhelming majority of young drivers understand the responsibility that comes with getting behind the wheel.
The problem is the minority who don't.
They are the people racing through villages, driving at ridiculous speeds, performing dangerous manoeuvres and putting residents and other road users at risk.
We shouldn't design policy around punishing everybody because of that minority.
We should identify the people responsible and target them.
The recent tragedy on the A66 is an extreme and terrible reminder of just how quickly things can go catastrophically wrong on the road.
I don't want us waiting for a serious collision in one of our villages before deciding we should have done more.
Castle Donington cannot simply become somewhere we push the problem out of, only for it to appear in Belton, Long Whatton, Hugglescote or somewhere else.
We need enforcement. We need intelligence. We need education. And above all, we need the different authorities responsible for our roads and public safety working together.
Let's tackle the dangerous behaviour, rather than simply moving it somewhere else.
