Born in 1946 and brought up in Cupar, Fife, I was educated at the local school - Road Safety
6. Alison McInnes (North East Scotland) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive when it will publish its 10-year road safety strategy. (S3O-6584)
The Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change (Stewart Stevenson):
I will announce the date of publication within the next few weeks.
Alison McInnes: When the minister came to office he stated that road safety was a priority, but it seems to me that the Scottish National Party is in a different time zone from the rest of us—it has taken two years to produce the road safety strategy.
The tally of fatalities on rural roads is disproportionate—accidents on rural roads account for 62 per cent of fatalities, even though they carry only 42 per cent of the traffic. Does the minister support the Department for Transport's view that speed limits on rural roads must be reviewed? If so, will he advise how and when that will be done?
Stewart Stevenson: The framework for speed limits is, of course, created by the DFT, not by us. A review of speed limits on roads that councils are responsible for is under way. We are working closely with DFT colleagues and have provided input to the consultation on driver licensing and on speed limits. We will continue with such work, because the member makes a perfectly good point—night time and rurality are particular vectors of risk that we need to understand and respond to.
