§ Mr. FoulkesTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will give the accident and fatal accident figures for each month of 1988, 1989 and any months of 1990 currently available for each stretch of the A77, A74 and A96, for the whole of each road, and on a directly comparable basis.
§ Lord James Douglas-HamiltonThe information requested for years 1988 and 1989 is provided in the following tables; figures are not available yet for 1990.
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A74 North of M74 South of M74 Total Trunk Non-trunk (Glasgow) Strathclyde Dumfries and Galloway 1988 1989 1988 1989 1988 1989 1988 1989 1988 1989 November — — — — — — — 1 — 1 December — — — — — — — 2 — 2 Year 2 — 2 4 4 4 3 4 11 12
A96 Highland Grampian Total Trunk Trunk Non-trunk (Aberdeen) 1988 1989 1988 1989 1988 1989 1988 1989 January 1 — 1 1 — — 2 1 February — — 1 1 — — 1 1 March — — 2 1 — 1 2 2 April — — 3 1 — — 3 1 May — — — 1 — — — 1 June — — 1 1 — — 1 1 July — — — — — — — — August 1 — — — — — 1 — September — — 3 — — — 3 — October — — 3 1 — — 3 1 November — — 2 1 — — 2 1 December — — 3 3 — — 3 3 Year 2 — 19 11 — 1 21 12
2. Number of accidents on A77, A74 and A96 in years 1988 and 1989 A77 North of Ayr South of Ayr Total Trunk Non-trunk (Glasgow) Trunk Non-trunk 1988 1989 1988 1989 1988 1989 1988 1989 1988 1989 January 11 7 7 4 1 6 — 1 19 18 February 10 6 5 5 4 4 1 — 20 15 March 7 14 13 5 3 8 1 2 24 29 April 9 8 4 8 5 4 1 1 19 21 May 4 11 9 10 5 1 1 1 19 23 June 3 14 5 16 5 2 — — 13 32 July 10 11 8 8 5 6 1 1 24 26 August 9 14 17 7 4 6 1 — 31 27 September 3 8 9 10 5 5 — — 17 23 October 11 12 14 7 4 7 — — 29 26 November 11 8 10 14 8 4 — — 29 26 December 13 16 16 10 7 6 — 1 36 33 Year 101 129 117 104 56 59 6 7 280 299 576W577W
A74 North of M74 South of M74 Total Trunk Non-trunk (Glasgow) Strathclyde Dumfries and Galloway 1988 1989 1988 1989 1988 1989 1988 1989 1988 1989 January 1 — 2 8 3 5 5 4 11 17 February 1 — 2 5 2 7 3 3 8 15 March 2 2 6 5 6 5 1 7 15 19 April 2 2 4 4 6 8 3 3 15 17 May 4 — 4 4 2 1 3 4 13 9 June 1 2 2 3 1 6 5 3 9 14 July 5 — 6 3 6 7 8 4 25 14 August 2 1 — 1 4 9 5 6 11 17 September 2 — 6 2 5 6 5 2 18 10 October 5 — 12 2 1 2 7 4 25 8 November 2 1 5 6 4 5 4 9 15 21 December 3 2 4 9 2 3 1 5 10 19 Year 30 10 53 52 42 64 50 54 175 180
A96 Highland Grampian Total Trunk Trunk Non-trunk (Aberdeen) 1988 1989 1988 1989 1988 1989 1988 1989 January 5 4 14 9 17 11 22 15 February 4 5 19 12 21 12 25 17 March 2 2 15 10 17 13 19 15 April — 2 12 9 17 12 17 14 May 3 3 5 8 8 11 11 14 June 2 1 14 9 15 13 17 14 July 5 1 15 15 16 18 21 19 August 4 3 13 10 16 14 20 17 September — 2 10 8 13 12 13 14 October 2 3 12 14 15 19 17 22 November 1 2 19 21 21 24 22 26 December 1 4 13 14 18 18 19 22 Year 29 32 161 139 194 177 223 209
§ Mr. DunnachieTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will announce measures to reduce the number of traffic accidents; and if he will make a statement.
§ Lord James Douglas-HamiltonThe Government are pursuing a wide range of measures in an effort to reduce the number of traffic accidents. These include engineering measures to improve the roads, publicity and advice to engender greater public awareness of the need for care on the roads, and legislation to improve standards of road safety behaviour.
In the last financial year, I committed £1 million to be spent specifically on low-cost accident investigation and prevention (AIP) schemes which funded 70 engineering schemes throughout Scotland. For this financial year I have committed a further £1.2 million to be spent on AIP work and to date 78 schemes have been approved throughout Scotland.
The Scottish Development Department has set up a specialist AIP team which liaises with the AIP teams also recently introduced by regional councils. Their combined efforts should play a major part in achieving the goal the Government have set of a reduction in road casualties by one third by the year 2000. Specific sites that have a bad accident record are looked at in detail with a view to undertaking low-cost engineering remedial works specifically designed to alleviate the particular problems identified. Strategies to bring improvements for routes as a whole are also being prepared.
Regional councils have been asked to set casualty reduction targets for local roads in their transport policies and programmes.
In terms of publicity, 1990 has been designated as Scottish Road Safety Year as part of efforts to tackle major areas of concern in Scotland related to speeding, drinking and driving and child pedestrian accidents. This is in addition to the Government's national campaigns and publications aimed at specific road safety issues. In May the Government announced wide-ranging proposals for the reduction of child casualties on roads, when they published the findings of the report on child pedestrian accidents and crossing behaviour in Scotland. It identified both engineering measures and educational measures aimed at adults, especially parents, and drivers, which would improve road safety. These proposals have been issued to the regional and island councils' roads, education 578W and health service departments. It is envisaged that casualties can best be reduced through the publicity and co-ordinated responses of all these groups.
On the legislative side, responsible road user behaviour is fostered by effective and fair traffic laws. We intend to introduce legislation at the earliest possible opportunity to implement the proposals to improve road traffic law that are set out in the White Paper, "The Road User and the Law". In addition, new legislation has recently come into force on child rear seat belts and we intend to introduce amended regulations for Scotland on road humps.