News

21 November 2008
NEW ROAD POLICING CHIEF STRESSES NEED FOR GREATER AWARENESS OF RISKS ON COUNTRY ROADS

Scotland’s new road policing chief is pleased that motorists’ driving habits have steadily improved during the past three decades but has expressed concern about motorists continuing to drive inappropriately on country roads.

During the past three decades, records show a trend that fewer people are being killed or injured on Scottish roads. 

Since 1970, the number of people killed annually on Scotland’s roads has decreased by two-thirds.  Furthermore, seriously injured numbers have dropped three-quarters, and the number of slightly injured people has been lowered by one-quarter during that time.

“But still too many Scottish drivers feel overly safe on country roads without realizing the risks that they face when they drive at inappropriate speeds,” said Chief Constable Kevin Smith (Central Scotland), chair of the Road Policing Business Area for the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland (ACPOS).

To underscore that risk, the Chief Constable pointed out that in Scotland:

• 75 percent of road crash fatalities happen on country roads;
• 58 percent of serious injuries happen on country roads.

“Driving too fast for the road, traffic or weather conditions, otherwise called ‘inappropriate’ speeding, is a major cause of crashes, fatalities and serious injuries,” Mr. Smith explained.

This concern about Scottish country road users has provided the Association  of Chief Police Officers in Scotland with the focus for their ‘Country Roads Weekend’runningfrom 07:00 hours on Friday, November 21 to 07:00 hours on Monday, November 24 – the fourth such weekend of the programme being carried out this year in co-operation with Road Safety Scotland and the country’s eight police forces. 

The weekend’s focus is designed to give higher visibility to regular, on-going road policing activity throughout the country to target inappropriate road user behaviour to reduce the number of motorists killed or seriously injured on country roads. 

“Weather and visibility conditions, traffic and pedestrian conditions, road surfaces and works are all factors that have a bearing on what the most appropriate speed should be for motorists on any road, particularly country roads,” he emphasised.

“Poor driving habits can affect your chances of causing an accident,” Chief Constable Smith concluded.  “Your safety margin is lessened and you can turn near misses into crashes when you drive at an inappropriate speed.  Don’t risk it!”