Your front page picture of reporter Ruth Keeling standing in 20 inches of water at Magdalen Bridge, Oxford, followed by your headline, Barriers, bouncers and lots of police prepare for celebration (Oxford Mail, April 27), set me thinking.

Last year, you report 40 people injured themselves, 12 taken to hospital, four of them seriously injured despite barriers erected by police. Surely it is time to rethink the whole situation?

This is a student tradition and boys will be boys and girls will be girls too, so why not remove the cause of the lacerations and broken bones, namely, the stone debris left from building the bridge.

All old stone bridges have the building debris thrown into the water beneath and Magdalen will be no exception.

The present bridge, considering its width, is unlikely to be the only one built on this site and debris from narrower earlier ones is most likely in the river too, hence, the 20in depth.

May I suggest the authorities employ a long-reach JCB, remove the stone and find the original mud bed of the river, deepening still further if necessary?

Consider the savings in cost: £37,000, John Radcliffe Hospital, erection of police barriers and huge police deployment this and every year.

These young people's graduate days in Oxford are looked forward to. They cannot all be in the Boat Race crew or the rugger team, but a few are high-spirited enough to jump in and get soaked. Make it safe for them!

Hubert G Busby, Long Hanborough