Nearly 2000 accidents on roads 'in urgent need of repair'

There has been almost 2000 accidents on roads in need of urgent upgrades across Scotland in the last five years, new figures indicate.

A total of 1986 accidents took place between 2016 and 2020 on routes including the A9, A96, A77, A1, A82, A83, and the A90.

Over 100 of the accidents led to fatalities, the statistics indicate.

The figures were published in response to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request made by the Scottish Conservatives.

The party has said that the figures make the case for upgrading or duallling key routes “undeniable”.

Scottish Conservative transport spokesman Graham Simpson urged the Scottish Government to urgently outlines plans to improve road safety.

“These shocking new figures prove that far too many of Scotland’s key roads are simply not safe enough for drivers who use them,” he said.

“We have long been calling for urgent upgrades to take place on these routes. The case for doing so is now undeniable.

“There was a time when SNP Ministers would have agreed with us, but now they are all too happy to bow to the demands of their extremist Green coalition partners, who are hellbent on denying the dualling or upgrading of key routes.

“Not only would this investment in our road network help boost Scotland’s recovery, it would also reduce the risk of drivers being involved in accidents.”

He added: “Ministers must wake up to the fact that almost 2000 accidents occurred in the last five years and that was just on these particular routes.

“Now is the time for SNP Ministers to show they are truly on the side of drivers across Scotland.”

A Transport Scotland spokesperson outlined the action being taken to cut the number of people killed or seriously injured on Scottish roads.

“£21m in funding is being provided (an uplift of £17m) to support delivery of the Road Safety Framework to 2030,” they said.

“The Framework has ambitious interim targets where the number of people being killed or seriously injured on our roads will be halved by 2030 with a long term goal where nobody is killed or seriously injured on our roads by 2050.

“The Framework has identified funding and resourcing – to improve funding streams for national and local road safety delivery – as one of 12 key enablers to achieve those targets.

“The increased budget will be used to fund research, education, publicity and support for partnership working in response to the Framework’s commitments.”

The spokesperson said work will continue on the development of existing major infrastructure projects.

They continued: “Total expenditure on motorways and trunk roads is £688.3m for 2022-23.

“This investment is focused on the critical safety maintenance of our motorways and trunk road network, increasing resilience to severe weather events, and to deliver on our commitment to maintain the trunk road network in line with international best practice.

“We will continue to progress with design and further development of our existing major infrastructure projects to achieve agreed improvements to existing routes including for example, A9 dualling programme, the Haudagain Junction and Maybole bypass.”