Monday, April 04, 2016

Frustration with slow moving vehciles likely to lead to accidents on A96 says Labour candidate

Here at the Gurn we are always happy to publish material from politicians provided it has a Nairnshire context. So here we are folks something from the Scottish Labour Party candidate:

"After raising the issue of slow moving vehicles causing frustration and likely to lead to road collisions on the A96, Scottish Labour Candidate for Inverness and Nairn, David Stewart, said " In my previous role as an MSP for the Highlands & Islands, I was contacted by constituents who were commuters travelling between Inverness and Nairn in particular, whom were concerned by the long tailbacks and queues caused by slow moving vehicles failing to pull over and let faster ones passed."

"What drivers of slow moving vehicles have to realise, is that if they fail to pull over, then frustration kicks in, the red mist comes down and drivers start to behave in a dangerous or careless manner. I repeatedly advise that a contributory factor in road collisions is driver behaviour and speed. We know that in 2014, excessive speed was responsible for 11% of all reported collisions and 18% of fatal collisions. What we don't know, because it is not recorded, is how many collisions are caused by driver frustration?"

" A review of Scotland's Road Safety Framework to 2020 has shown that there needs to be a refocus on speed, (fast and slow) motorcycles, young drivers, older drivers and pedestrian and cyclists. These are all areas where I have been working over the past six years."

" I have written to the Government and Police Scotland on this issue in relation to the A96 Inverness - Nairn Road and I am delighted that Assistant Chief Constable,Bernard Higgins of Police Scotland, has advised that this route has now been formally identified as a priority route and this will mean that all such issues as those I have highlighted will be given due attention."

8 comments:

kate the pict said...

I find travel to work in Nairn quite difficult at present : either there is no traffic in which case I can drive at 60 mph and get there in 20 minutes or so, or there is nose to tail traffic and it takes me 40 minutes plus. No way of knowing in advance, and tailbacks are not only caused by lorries - there is also agricultural traffic, some of which lets traffic past, and some which does not. Roll on duelled A96!

Anonymous said...

If the A96 is so important to Labour then how come they didn't make it dual carriageway when they were in power?

Anonymous said...

David Stewart has thrown his talents at a raft of Highland issues in recent months, namely penning missives to all and sundry on a variety of problems.

No doubt he is trying to show the electorate how great a job Labour would make if they were given the reigns of power.

Sorry to say that Scotland voted for Labour for decades but it got us no where.

The last straw was when Labour stood shoulder to shoulder with the Tories in the lead up to the Scottish Independence vote, elephant like Scotland will never forget this

Write away Mr Stewart but you'll find the majority of us have written Labour off

cradlehall said...

The A96 has always been a highway for tractors. Your speed is determined by the slowest tractor ahead of you!

Anonymous said...

Ach leave wee Davie alone.
Deep down he's a harmless soul.
Except when he used to support New Labour's madcap scheme to privatise Air Traffic Control.
Err, and except when he backed the Edinburgh Trams instead of dualling the main road links.
And err, except for Iraq ..............
And err, student fees ....
But apart from a long list of broken promises and prioritising London before Scotland ..........
On a more positive note, it is great to see the surveying work going on in the fields North and South of the A96.
There must be a different Party, a better Party running Scotland. A Party that cares about Scotland's future.
Perhaps even wee Davie might yet vote SNP

Anonymous said...

The Lib Dems campaigned for a Nairn Bypass

The SNP have started building it

Labour's David Stewart has started writing letters about the Nairn traffic issue

Hmm... I can see it's going to be difficult to decide who to vote for

Anonymous said...

How long before we will all be driving on the right on this new bypass to prove how European we are, rather than British to satisfy the SNP zealots?

Anonymous said...

10.04
Silly Billy
Why would we want to drive on the right?
Several European countries also drive on left.
A la prochaine Mon Yoonie Ami