Turning around Scotland's road safety record will require the development of engineering solutions to remove blackspots from our roads, an expert group on road safety said today.

Transport Minister Stewart Stevenson chaired the first meeting of the group, which was brought together to advise on further steps to reduce the number of tragedies on Scotland's roads.

In the meeting the group also advised that action to change driver behaviour and improve education would be required to improve the country’s road safety record.

Following the meeting, Stevenson said: “This was a very positive first meeting, in which we made progress towards developing a new 10 year road safety strategy for Scotland.

“This group brings together leading experts in the field and we have agreed further work which will help us to deliver solutions to make our roads safer.

“It is clear to all of us that far too many people die or are injured on Scotland's roads each year. Saving lives will require a serious approach to tackling the complex issues involved and resources to back it up.

“The group concluded that one meeting would not be enough to get to the bottom of the complex issues of road safety and, as agreed when the panel was formed, there will be further meetings arranged at the earliest opportunity to put forward specific policy proposals to the Scottish Government.

“And this government will back up those proposals up with an extra £3 million being made available over the next three years to support the proposals this group will bring forward and to take forward a new road safety strategy for Scotland which will be published in the summer.”

The Conservatives welcomed the adoption of their party policy of developing engineering solutions to blackspots.

Alex Johnstone MSP, the party’s Shadow Minister for Transport, said: “At successive elections the Scottish Conservatives have called for a dedicated fund to improve the most dangerous junctions and bends on our roads and I am therefore delighted that the Government's own expert panel have effectively endorsed our policy.

“In our manifesto this year we budgeted £15m for a dedicated black-spot fund and I look forward to seeing the Government bringing forward their own proposals imminently.”

Readers have left 3 comments.

1. Expert group recommends engineering solutions to blackspots
john schofield, Unregistered

completely disagree -we need a culture of obeying the speed limit combined with greater driver responsibility so that roads can be safely used by all the public.

Posted 2007-11-30 12:17:42

2. Blackspots
Anonymous, Unregistered

The UK already has one of the lowest rates of road deaths and accidents in the world [OECD figures see website link below]. Furthermore the UK has consistently reduced its road accident and death rate over the last 10 years, being in the top 3 worldwide for improvement and overall accident/death figures (Norway and Sweden are better). Bad news is the "lowest common denominator" source of publicity and yet again this is an example of a politician finding it all too easy to hang their publicity seeking policies on easy targets, such as motorists, who are by their implication to blame for "blackspots". Motorists who also face a daily onslaught from the green lobby, and are disproportionate contributors to the bottomless pit that is the revenue needs of an over cumbersome public sector and the ill informed policy makers employed therein. What we need is a realistic approach to targeting valuable funds, £3 million pounds would be better spent enforcing traffic regulations on cyclists or improving motorways in Scotland, for example, rather than reducing the already expensive and frustrating lives of generally law abiding and well trained/experienced motorists in the UK to scapegoats for a problem that does not exist. Leave us alone Stewart...

http://www.cemt.org/irtad/IRTADPUBLIC/we2.html

Posted 2007-11-30 13:32:16

3. Expert group recommends engineering solutions to blackspots
Andrew Fraser, Unregistered

That an expert group has recommended engineering solutions to road accident blackspots is great news - it's been known for decades that even where human frailty has been judged the sole contributor to an accident, that it may be possible to influence human behviour far more readily by engineering means than by education or enforcement.
But how is it to be achieved, I wonder, given the havoc wreaked on our Roads Departments in 1996 - for which road users continue to paying a terrible price?

Posted 2007-12-21 10:26:28

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