Mapping Scotland's fatal road crashes

The snapshot of incidents on Scotland's roads, compiled from Department for Transport statistics, found there were 10,287 accidents during 2010, involving 13,009 casualties and 16,387 vehicles. These accidents resulted in just over 200 fatalities.

age

While young drivers are known to be more at risk of having a crash, the highest number of accidents – 5243 – was recorded among drivers aged 25 to 39.

Separate Government statistics show young male car drivers, aged 17 to 25, have an accident rate one-and-a-half times the rate for drivers of all other age groups.

The next highest number of crashes was recorded in the 40 to 54-year-old age group, at 4829, while drivers under the age of 25 accounted for 3120 accidents.

Among older drivers, there were 2099 accidents among 55 to 69-year-olds, while 701 accidents were recorded among drivers age 70 or over.

Ellen Booth, senior campaigns officer at road-safety charity Brake, said it was in favour of a graduated licensing system for new drivers, which would place restrictions for a year on those who have just passed their test, such as limiting driving at night and introducing a "zero tolerance" to alcohol, for example.

"The kind of restrictions we call for are very much based in the evidence," she said. "Young drivers are much more likely to crash at night, and when there are other young people in the car with them.''

sex

According to the analysis, male drivers were involved in nearly double the number of accidents than female drivers, with 10,696 accidents involving male drivers, while 4983 involved female drivers.

TIMES

More than 3000 accidents were recorded while people were making a journey as part of their work, while 2077 accidents happened while commuting to and from work. The statistics also show nearly 200 accidents happened on the school run.

DEATHS

The death toll of just over 200 during 2010 is the lowest for years. One reason, according to Andrew Howard, head of road safety at the AA, is the design of cars and introduction of new safety technology over the past decade or so.

"Back in the late 1990s we were seeing that kind of technology arriving in cars, but now you are seeing it in the cars that are driven by the problem drivers, the very young ones," he said.

"If you are buying a 10-year-old car now it is going to have the airbags and things that were novel 10 years ago and, of course, that is going to play a major role in dealing with some of the most vulnerable and accident-prone groups." But Howard also warned against a "false air of optimism" as the harsh winter weather in 2009 and 2010 is believed to have contributed to a drop in road casualties.

He said: "It was hard enough to go out, let alone to go out driving. In some ways we have probably got to accept there could be a minor rise in 2011."

CYClISTS AND PEDESTRIANS

There were 780 accidents involving cyclists and 1985 involving pedestrians, 51 of them at a school-crossing patrol and 109 at crossings such as zebra crossings. Another 696 accidents happened at pedestrian lights.

Transport Minister Keith Brown will meet on Wednesday with road-safety groups to discuss how to further protect cyclists on Scotland's roads, following the deaths of two cyclists in Edinburgh so far this year.

Keith Irving, head of Living Streets Scotland, which campaigns for pedestrian safety, said welcome progress had been made on reducing road casualties.

But he added: "Nonetheless, over 600 children, the equivalent of 30 classrooms full of kids, were injured as pedestrians in our villages, towns and cities in 2010.

"It is also unacceptable that the death toll amongst Scotland's pedestrians is nearly 40% higher than in England and Wales.

"Making our streets more pedestrian-friendly, especially the introduction of 20mph [limits] on streets where we live, work, shop and play will help to save lives, as well as creating more sociable and pleasant environments for us all to enjoy."

REACTION

Michael McDonnell, director of Road Safety Scotland, which promotes road-safety initiatives and is funded by government agency Transport Scotland, said driving campaigns now focused on highlighting everyday risky behaviour and the chances of getting caught by the police.

"We don't do blood and guts any more," he said. "One of the things we realised is although people understand that death and destruction for any aberrant driving behaviour is the worst thing possible, if they don't believe it is going to happen to them then whatever behaviour we are trying to change is unlikely to be changed.

"So the way we approach it now is to present credible risks. By concentrating more on the lifestyle consequences of being caught, we have attempted to prevent casualties and fatalities by not talking about them."

Superintendent Alan Duncan, head of road policing for Lothian and Borders Police and chair of the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland (Apcos) national campaigns working group, said there could be "quite ridiculously dangerous" situations drivers are prepared to put themselves and other road users in.

"Probably with a lot of people there is this sense it won't happen to them – either that they won't be detected for an offence they commit, or indeed the consequences of their behaviour will not result in them being involved in a collision," he said.

"On a day-to-day basis, there is the number of people you see using a mobile phone while they are driving, when there is irrefutable evidence about the dangers of the distraction that mobile phones can cause.

"I think for many people it is a personal selfishness. They think it is more important for them to use their phone to take or receive a call than it is to give cognisance to their responsibility to both themselves, passengers and other road users to keep the roads as safe as possible."

Brown said: "Scotland currently has the lowest road-accident fatality rates since records began and is already among the safest in Europe.

"Our approach on education and enforcement – alongside targeted safety campaigns and the setting of demanding targets for Scotland's roads – is delivering impressive results. However, we simply cannot afford to be complacent on this issue and even one death on our roads is unacceptable."

CASE STUDIES:

'My husband's death ripped our family apart'

FOUR years ago British cycling champion Jason MacIntyre, 34, was out training, in the hope of being selected for this year's Olympics. But the ordinary training run ended in tragedy when he hit the back of a Highland Council van. He died from head injuries.

The driver of the van, Robert McTaggart, was fined £500 and suspended from driving for six months after pleading guilty to careless driving.

MacIntyre's widow also fought a long battle to have a fatal accident inquiry into her husband's death, which ruled that the death was due wholly to MacTaggart's lack of care on the road.

Caroline MacIntyre (above right), 35, who lives in Fort William with twin daughters Chloe and Morgan, now 13, said her husband's death had "completely ripped our family apart".

She said: "It completely changes the way you are. You are never the same after something like that. I think it is because it is so sudden and so unexpected, you can't quite grasp a reality on it.

"The day it happened it was just exactly the same, I was taking Morgan to school, he [Jason] was standing at the car and he just said, 'I'll see you later.' I said, 'OK, I'll catch you when I get back', the same as he had done every day since we had been together, but he didn't come back.

"It's hard to grasp, I think, even four years down the line. You can't accept what has happened, but you do try and pick up the pieces, especially for Chloe and Morgan's sake."

MacIntyre said she was increasingly concerned at the attitude of some drivers, particularly towards cyclists.

"The fact is when you get into a car you have to take the onus on yourself that you are in charge of a lethal weapon and you can cause great harm to people," she said.

"Sadly, I'm seeing it more and more, people are taking their anger out on cyclists."

'My son will never come through the door'

MICHELLE Sneddon was walking home with a friend and their children from a dance class in February 2004 on a quiet Sunday morning when an unlicensed, uninsured driver who was high on ecstasy and alcohol ploughed into them into a stolen car.

Her five-year-old son, Ross, was thrown 15 feet in the air and died at the scene. Her friend, Anne Martin, and Anne's daughter Ashley, who was seven years old, were also killed.

Sneddon, 37, who lives with husband Andrew and daughters Charlotte, 11 and Lyta, 10, in Glenrothes, said the loss of her son had a devastating impact on her family.

She said: "He was our first-born and our only son and he was a little character. It just feels horrible that I know he is not going to come in the door; it's worse now.

"Everything we do makes us think, 'What would Ross think of this?' and it is horrible as we never get an answer."

The driver of the car Dean Martin – no relation to Anne Martin – who was 23 at the time, was sentenced to 11 years after admitting culpable homicide. But Sneddon says: "He got out in five-and-a-half years. It made me feel very, very angry. He got married the same week my son should have started high school.

"I would like to see harder-hitting adverts on TV, because at the moment they are just seeing tame adverts which doesn't really show them the consequences."

PROBLEMS IN FINDING OUT WHICH ACCIDENTS WERE DUE TO DRINK

The method of recording accident details makes it almost impossible to show which accidents were due to alcohol.

It's possible to say that 3.6% of drivers involved in injury accidents who were asked for a breath test registered a positive reading or refused to take the test, according to the publication Reported Road Casualties Scotland 2010.

But when the Sunday Herald tried to get more information to collate a more complete map of the number of positive or refused breath tests across Scotland during 2010 our request was refused.

Transport Scotland, which collates the statistics, said this was deemed "sensitive personal information" which could result in the identification of individuals when combined with data on the location.

Another problem was recording which positive breath tests resulted in a successful prosecution.

Transport Scotland said the information recorded by police at the scene of an accident would not be updated if further breath tests proved negative at a police station.

The current equipment for roadside breath tests does not provide definitive "evidential" readings that can be used in court.

However, Superintendent Alan Duncan, head of road policing for Lothian and Borders Police and chair of the Acpos national campaigns working group, said more sophisticated devices were in development and could be trialled by Scottish police forces in the next year or two.

Statistics show 920 casualties, or 7%, were estimated to be due to drink-drive accidents in Scotland in 2009, the latest year for which figures are available. But the data is acknowledged to be incomplete as it is not always possible to give breath tests to all drivers or riders involved in accidents. For drivers or riders killed in road accidents, a post-mortem blood alcohol level is frequently not available, for example, if the casualty died more than 12 hours after the accident.