Lawford Kidd's Blog

The Scottish police annual summer crackdown on drink and drug driving will take place from 4th to 18th June and will involve all eight of Scotland's police forces.

Chief Superintendent Derek Robertson of Lothian and Borders Police, road casualty reduction lead for the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland (ACPOS), said: “During last summer’s campaign we detected 245 people for drink driving and 21 who were unfit through drugs in Scotland. That is totally unacceptable and it is worth remembering that many of those people will still be serving a driving ban today.”

He added: “There is a clear link between driving impairment through drink or drugs and road crashes in which people, many of them unconnected with the driver, are killed or seriously injured. We must all work together to reduce the risk and I would ask anyone with information about a drink or drug driver to contact the police or the independent charity Crimestoppers.”

A worker from County Durham had his hand severed while carrying out maintenance on glass cutting machinery a court heard.

The 34-year-old maintenance technician was investigating a fault on a new tilt table with a colleague. He  was on his hands and knees while trying to ascertain the cause of the fault and had activated the emergency stop.

Suspended above his right wrist was a large laminated glass sheet measuring six metres by three metres and weighing around almost a ton. The worker had his right arm extended with a mirror in his hand so he could check the status of a sensor relating to the release of the glass onto the table.

In the run up to the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) has taken a look back over how roads and road safety have changed since the Queen came to the throne sixty years ago.

Key developments include:

• Since 1952, over 313,000 people have died on UK roads.
• The good news is that the number of road victims is on the decrease. In 1952, 13 people a day died on our roads, compared to five a day now. When increased vehicle numbers are taken into account, roads are actually six times safer.
• Today’s roads would be beyond recognition to drivers in 1952. Vehicle numbers have steadily increased from four million to 34 million in the last 60 years.
• Many important road safety laws have been brought in during the Queen’s reign, including the MOT test, drink drive limit, and compulsory seatbelt and motorcycle helmet wearing.

IAM chief executive Simon Best said: “Road safety gets better by the year, and the technology of roads and cars improves all the time.

A waste management and recycling company has been fined for safety failings after a worker lost most of his arm on an unguarded conveyor system at a Kent quarry.

Dartford Magistrates heard that a conveyor belt used to transfer waste into a sorting shed was juddering and virbrating, making sorting difficult, after a driving roller was blocked by stones.

Agency employee Vladislavs Golovacs should have stopped the machine before removing the debris. Instead he removed the stones with the power still running and his left arm became trapped and was torn with extreme force.

A coalition of road safety and environmental organisations have launched a campaign protesting the government's plans to increase speed limits on motorways to 80mph.

The No to 80 coalition is highlighting the huge costs to society of the proposal, which it predicts will exceed £1 billion annually in economic terms, mean more families needlessly suffering from motorway crashes and casualties, millions of tonnes more carbon pumped into the atmosphere each year and further damage to tranquillity in the countryside.

80mph limits are predicted by experts to result in more violent road deaths and serious injuries, causing unnecessary trauma and suffering. One academic estimated it would lead to 25 extra deaths and 100 more serious injuries each year.