The dangers of Scotland’s deadly country roads are being highlighted in a new campaign supported by the Scottish Government.

Three quarters of Scotland’s road deaths happen on rural routes – an average of 188 a year.

Fifty-eight per cent of those killed or seriously injured are aged between 17 and 39 - with male drivers most commonly involved.

The new initiative by the government and Road Safety Scotland aims to illustrate the hidden dangers of country roads.

Research conducted as part of the campaign revealed that nearly one in five drivers had a 'near-miss' on a country road in the last year and that 40% of crashes involve single vehicles.

Worryingly nearly half of motorists interviewed were unaware that the national speed limit on a country road is 60mph.

Ninety per cent of Scottish motorists regularly drive on country roads - 57% of them at least three times a week. This has led to fears that familiarity is breeding complacency.

Dr. Neale Kinnear, a senior psychologist at the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) explains how over-familiarity can affect driving ability: "Complacency at the wheel occurs when a driver feels their level of risk dropping. This is what can happen when you've driven the same section of road over and over again and the route becomes familiar. The driver perceives the route as becoming easier and is more likely to drive faster or do something like make a phone call because they're lulled into a false sense of security about being safe.

"Therefore when an unexpected event happens, as is often the case on country roads, the driver's complacency becomes critical to the situation as there is not enough of a safety margin to avoid a crash. With so many Scottish motorists regularly driving on country roads, many of them driving the same route every day, this is a real and present risk to driver safety."

Michael McDonnell, Director of Road Safety Scotland said: "Too many drivers are putting their lives at risk by driving at a speed that's wrong for the conditions.

“Worryingly, nearly a third of drivers admit to speeding when they're out of town and a core group of excessive speeders frequently drive at 20mph over the speed limit, and while this is dangerous, the reality is you don't have to be speeding to be going too fast.

“On country roads speed kills because it determines how long you have - or don't have - to respond to a situation. This campaign urges drivers of all ages to slow down, be aware of the unpredictability of country roads and adjust their speed to the conditions."

The Road Safety Scotland campaign will run in cinemas and on TV, radio and online from this weekend and throughout February and March.