POLICE have been asked to look into a theory that crashes on a notorious straight stretch of road next to a railway line which has claimed three lives in a year may be the result of it becoming slippery due to diesel particulate from trains settling on the tarmac.
Some locals are said to be slowing down on the A937 near the Angus village of Craigo, because of past concerns about the slippiness of the surface on the half mile stretch.
In past years some have believed that accidents on the blackspot was the result of toilet waste being flushed out - before trains used tanks.
Now information about the possibility that diesel particulate from the trains may be a factor in the issues in the road has been passed by Angus Council to police investigating the latest death crash.
The theory has arisen because the train track runs parallel and 20ft above the road only on the notorious 500 yard stretch.
Scott Mowatt, 31, and Paisley Bates, 26, both from Arbroath died last week when their vehicle went through the parapet of a small bridge and fell down a slope. Another man was seriously injured in hospital.
It was understood the group were travelling towards the bridge just before midnight on Saturday, when they lost control of the blue Vauxhall Astra.
The vehicle plunged off the side of the road – partially colliding with the structure on the way down – and landed several feet down below on an embankment, The accident came a year after 21-year-old Leanne McDonald, who studied at the Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, was killed in a crash on the same stretch of road.
In February, a woman suffered serious leg injuries in a three-car crash on the stretch.
One local, retired engineering consultant Ian Forrest said the road had become notorious and believes a cause could be the diesel particulate which comes from train engine exhaust emissions.
The fumes are mixture of gases, vapours, liquid aerosols and substances made up of particles.
Breathing in diesel fumes can affect your health, and exposure to the fumes can cause irritation to the eyes or respiratory tract. But he believes diesel particulate inding its way onto the road may be the reason for accidents.
He said: "Look at it is this way, there have been three reported accidents that I know of, two of them fatal, causing the death of three people, in the last 12 months. "There has been so many accidents on that stretch of road that quite a few people say that it is diesel particulates that is making the road like ice.
"What else can it be on this particular straight piece of road that causes these accidents if it is not connected to the railway. They are crashing in the same area on the same piece of road. How can you come off the road when you are driving in straight line.
"There is a small bridge over a insignificant stream and that has been hit. It's one of those bridges that you can drive the road for years, and you would never ever notice that there is a bridge there.
"My son said years ago that he and his mates were always careful there because they thought it was stuff coming from the trains "And if that is the case, all they would have to do is put a barrier up to stop the particulates coming down."
Angus Council said the information had been the have "passed it on to Police Scotland to consider it during the current investigation".
A council spokesman added: "We can’t speculate as to the cause of the accident."
The Herald approached ScotRail for a comment, but the Dutch-owned rail firm said it would not make a comment because an investigation was under way by the police.
Police Scotland's were asked for comment but were unable to respond.
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