THE number of people killed on Scottish roads has hit a two-year high in 2016 with road safety campaigners believing a major contributory factor is in-car distractions including mobile phones.
Official Department for Transport figures shows there there were 1,792 deaths on British roads year - up four per cent on 2015 numbers and the highest death toll for half a decade.
And nearly half the rise in deaths on British roads is made up of Scottish fatalities which numbered 191 last year, a rise in a year of 18 per cent.
Transport Scotland said the figures were "disappointing".
The RAC believe a "significant factor" is in-car distractions such as mobile phones which are having a serious affect on the ability to concentrate on the roads.
Across Britain, deaths caused by the interruptions have risen by 43 per cent to 121. Deaths specifically involving drivers on mobile phones rose from 22 to 35 in the year.
The RAC said accidents involving driver distraction were at 28 per cent in 2016 compared with 22 per cent in 2012 and 25 per cent in 2015.
RAC road safety spokesman Pete Williams said the number of deaths where a mobile phone was to blame was likely to be an underestimate.
He said: “Of all the official categories of factors that cause crashes, deaths caused by driver distraction and impairment saw the greatest rise between 2012 and 2016 which is a concern, although we are sadly not surprised.
"We believe the issue of distracted driving is one that affects all corners of the UK, including Scotland, which is why these statistics should be taken seriously.
“Scotland, rightly, has its own casualty reduction targets but the figures released today are a stark reminder why every effort must be made by the Scottish and UK governments to invest enough to reduce unnecessary deaths on our roads.”
The Department for Transport described the overall UK rise as “not statistically significant” – sparking uproar from motoring organisations.
And the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) called for the return of Single-Double Summer Time - meaning we would use Greenwich Mean Time +1 in winter and GMT +2 in the summer - to allow for an extra hour of daylight in the evenings during the autumn school run.
Neil Greig, policy and research director of leading road safety charity IAM RoadSmart said: "The figures show the crucial need to increase funding in engineering schemes, education campaigns and enforcement but also to use Scottish government procurement to buy safer cars and insist that all suppliers take road safety seriously.
"We have all the right building blocks in place in Scotland such as clear government targets and high levels of investment in new roads. On the other hand we also have big cuts in local road budgets and traffic policing set against a background of ever increasing traffic."
Superintendent Louise Blakelock, deputy head of road policing for Police Scotland, said: "Every person killed on Scotland's roads is a tragedy and devastating for the family they leave behind.
"We are working hard to meet the Scottish Government's 2020 casualty reduction target, and expect this year's official results, to be published by the Scottish Government next month, to show a reduction in deaths by around a third, compared to the 2004 - 2008 average.
"We regularly run campaigns to remind drivers about vulnerable road users and the dangers of driver distraction, of which mobile phone use is only one of a range of factors behind serious and fatal road collisions."
A Transport Scotland spokesman said: "It is disappointing that there has been an increase in the number of fatalities and the number of people seriously injured on our roads in 2016. The Scottish Government and our road safety partners continue to work towards our ambitious casualty reduction targets set out in Scotland’s Road Safety Framework to 2020.
“The longer term downward trends are positive and show that we are making good progress towards meeting our targets – however, all partners involved in road safety remain determined to save lives and to meet the ultimate reduction target set out in the Framework, where no-one is killed on Scotland’s roads.”
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