Lawford Kidd's Blog

New 20mph zones have been introduced in Glasgow as the city follows Edinburgh’s lead in attempting to reduce the number of road traffic accidents and injuries to vulnerable road users.

Edinburgh announced that a speed limit would be put in place in some areas of the city centre in March 2015 and Glasgow has now introduced a similar speed policy in a number of “high-risk” areas.

The Glasgow 20mph area covers a number of danger areas for vulnerable road users covering much of the South bank of the Clyde. While the new speed limit will not be enforced by speed cameras, police will be monitoring the areas to make sure that the new limits are adhered to, with new warnings also in place for drivers. The decision to implement a new speed limit was approved following a six-week public consultation, with 69% of the respondents being in favour of introducing a significantly reduced speed limit.

A new study has revealed that luxury vehicles are more likely to be involved in road traffic accidents than Smart cars and other similar models.

According to the latest data, Smart cars have the lowest "at fault" insurance claim rate out of any model. Between July 2014 and June 2015, vehicles such as the Smart car only registered 78.6 at fault claims per 1,000 drivers. This is in stark contrast to drivers of high-end cars such as Lexus, who had a 111 fault claims per 1,000 road users.

Other high-end luxury brands such as Land Rover and Audi were some of the worst performing in the study, with 110.1 and 105.2 at fault claims per 1,000 drivers respectively. The survey, from Moneysupermarket, analysed over 11.3 million car insurance quotes from the last year and shed some light into the driving habits of drivers.

Concerning new statistics - released by Transport Scotland - show that both the number of deaths and the number of persons seriously injured, on Scotland's roads, increased last year.

In particular, between 2013 an 2014, the number of persons who died in road traffic accidents across Scotland, increased by sixteen per cent (16%) to two hundred (200), while the number of serious injuries increased by one per cent (1%) 1,694.

Young drivers could benefit from improved training and lower insurance premiums as the government confirmed its intention to launch a green paper on improving the safety and reducing risks to young drivers.

Among the proposals being considered are:

• a minimum learning period before candidates are permitted to sit their test
• enabling learner drivers to take lessons on motorways, and perhaps during adverse weather conditions or during darkness to encourage greater practice prior to taking a test
• increasing the existing probationary period from two to three years for a new driver’s licence to be revoked if they receive six or more penalty points
• making the driving test more rigorous to better prepare learners to drive unsupervised
• incentives for young drivers to take up additional training after passing their test.

The government is also considering the possibility of imposing temporary restrictions on newly qualified drivers and further details will be included for discussion when the green paper is published.

Europe’s largest organisation of engineers, the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), says the loss of focus brought about by the removal of road safety targets could lead to more road traffic accidents in different parts of the country.

Targets set in 2000 by the government led directly to a fall in road deaths of almost 50% due to the impetus this forced on local authorities to create road safety partnerships.

The warning is sounded as the professional engineering body submits evidence to the Transport Select Committee, which is investigating the impact of the Government’s Strategic Framework for Road Safety. The Framework, published by the Department for Transport earlier in the year, shifted from the former targets based programme, to an outcomes framework. Evidence shows that long-term targets would help local authorities to reduce deaths and serious injuries on UK roads.