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Johnstone's View 28th March 2008

Over the Easter Holiday weekend there has been another spate of deaths and serious injuries on roads across the North East. Without a doubt, the snow and ice will have played a significant part in these accidents but, while it is too early to determine the cause, it is impossible to avoid speculating that driver error may have played a part. The North East of Scotland has a poor record on road safety and it is something which we should all be concerned about, but what action should we be taking?

The message that ‘Speed Kills’ has been drummed into us for years now but I don’t think it is the whole of the problem. Most of the European motorway network operates safely with a speed limit of 82 miles per hour and a safety record which puts us to shame. This might lead us to question if the resources directed to keeping us to the 70 mph limit on our better trunk roads is money well spent. On many of our North East trunk roads like the A90 and the A96 North of Aberdeen and, more locally, the Netherley road for example, the problems can often be caused by the frustration experienced by drivers encountering slow moving traffic as much as the effects of speeding.

Worse still is the problem of young and inexperienced drivers which can take two forms. First, there are those who are over cautious. I remain surprised by the number of young drivers, especially women, who have told me about the aggression and intimidation they have experienced while driving, often from people who should know better. Secondly, and rather more significantly however, are those young drivers who suffer from massive over confidence. They are difficult to detect in the learning and testing process because they are often the better drivers, the quickest learners and the most likely to pass their driving test at the first attempt. They then however, go on to a have a series of accidents from which they appear to learn nothing.

Another potential issue is the ever growing number of elderly drivers who may be experiencing a deterioration in their eyesight or perception and let’s not forget the disabled drivers for whom mobility is essential but who may drive with certain limitations which could conflict with the preconceptions of some other road users. Their problems are compounded by a ‘car hostile’ council which is trying to keep traffic out of our town centres when we should be doing more to attract people in.

There are some people who are suggesting that the age at which a driving licence can be acquired should be increased to 18 – I disagree. The problem of irresponsible drivers will not be solved by taking away responsibility. We should permit young drivers to drive on the roads, under instruction on a provisional licence, from the age of 16. This would mean that all drivers presenting them selves for the test would have had a full year to learn about their responsibilities before being released into the environment.

Since the overwhelming majority would still be attending school at this age, the schools could, either as part of the curriculum or as an extra curricular activity, take a lead role on preparing young drivers for the written and perception tests which are now so important. This would be a good time to try to introduce the patience and tolerance which is missing in some. The schools could also, perhaps, do some work on identifying the potentially dangerous drivers before the do themselves, or someone else, harm.

The other change we need to make is in the approach to policing our roads. Speed is only a symptom of a much greater problem on our roads. The problem is not with speeding drivers, it is with BAD drivers. The ever growing use of technology to identify and penalise those who are easiest to identify and most willing to confess their crime is, at one and the same time, allowing the most dangerous people on our roads to go undetected while driving a wedge into the relationship between the police and some of our most law abiding citizens.

I want to see more high visibility policing on our roads as on our streets, more emphasis on cutting the statistics for deaths and injuries than on increasing the take from speed cameras and, above all else, additional resources spent on extra policemen and women, not on gadgetry.