RESIDENTS in the north-east of Scotland are the most likely in Britain to be killed or seriously injured in a road crash, according to a new map of the nation's accident blackspots.

People living in Banff and Buchan - Alex Salmond's former Westminster constituency - are more than twice as likely as the national average to be killed or seriously injured on the road,

West Aberdeenshire & Kincardine and the Gordon seat - which the former First Minister is vying to capture in May - are the second and third worst constituencies in Britain for rates of road deaths and serious injuries among constituents.

The constituency-by-constituency snapshot of Britain also shows that while Scotland has comparatively low levels of overall road casualties - once slight injuries are included - the rate of serious and fatal traffic collisions generally exceeds England and Wales.

Neil Greig, the Scotland-based director of policy for the Institute of Advanced Motorists, said: "It's not surprising in the sense that the north-east has some of the worst stretches of the A9, and that's the road that's always in the news for crashes.

"In rural areas it's predominantly single carriageways, where if you make a mistake the roads are unforgiving. This basically backs up what the IAM has been saying about altering the driving test so that learners have experience on country roads.

"New drivers are unprepared for these roads."

Nine of the ten constituencies with the lowest overall casualty rates are located in Scotland - the only exception is the Cities of London and Westminster constituency, which is home to the Houses of Parliament.

Constituents in Glasgow North are the least likely in the whole of Britain to be involved in a road accident - either as a car occupant, pedestrian or other road user.

The worst constituency for overall casualty rates was Midlothian.

However, the discrepancy once slight injuries are discounted appears to be driven by the higher proportion of rural areas in Scotland.

The report notes that "many very urban areas have casualty rates well below average, but less dense urban towns and cities have rates significantly higher".

In effect, the likelihood of being involved in a road accident is lower for people living in Scotland rather than England, especially those living in a town or city. But those who are in a crash are more likely to be killed or seriously injured (KSI).

The lowest KSI rates are found in constituencies including East Dunbartonshire and East Renfrewshire, Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy's seat.

The map was commissioned by the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety, an all-party group, using Department of Transport casualty data from 2008-2013.

Researchers calculated each constituency's casualty rate by taking into account factors such as population size to create an "index value". This was then measured against a British national average, taken as 100, to calculate how far above or below a particular constituency's casualty rate was from the national average.

Banff and Buchan, with an index value of 211, was therefore 111 per cent above the national average.

The index was also based on the number of constituents involved in road crashes, rather the number of road crashes per constituency. As a result, not all residents killed or injured would necessarily have been involved in a crash within their own constituency.

The map also details casualty rates by pedestrian, car occupants and motorcyclists, revealing that constituents of Glasgow Central are most likely in Scotland to be killed or injured while on foot.

The rate of pedestrian casualties is 70 above average in the constituency, which covers areas including the west end and Merchant City.

Residents of Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk are the most likely to be killed or injured while travelling in a car - 21 per cent above the national average - while Midlothian has the worst rate of motorcyclist casualties in Scotland.