Cars

Today with compulsory safety checks for vehicle road worthiness and changes to the driving test the number of car users who were casualties on Scotland’s roads continues to decrease.

Despite this in 2017,  65 car users died as a direct result of a traffic accident and 661 were seriously injured bringing the total number of casualties to 5,704.  Children accounted for 330 of those casualties.

Children travelling in cars

Seat Belts the Law

Children under 3 must be in an appropriate child restraint in the front and back. If there are no seat belts in the vehicle to which a restraint can be fixed, the child cannot travel in the vehicle.

Children aged 11 and younger, or under 135cm in height (4ft 5in) must use an appropriate child restraint in the front of the vehicle. They cannot just use the seatbelt. If there is a seatbelt in the back, to which a restraint can be fixed, the child must use an appropriate restraint.

Children aged 12 and 13, or younger children over 135cm in height must wear a seatbelt in the front and back of the vehicle.

[If your vehicle doesn’t have seat belts, for example it’s a classic car, you aren’t allowed to carry any children under 3 years old in it. Children over 3 are only allowed to sit in the back seats.These rules only apply if your vehicle was originally made without seat belts.]

More information here: car seat rules

Roads with a 60mph

Rural roads continue to be where the most serious casualty rate is higher with speed thought to be the most likely contributor. Reduced light is also a  significant contributor to the accident rate on both urban and rural roads with road conditions:rain /flooding/ice -not affecting the figures as you might expect.

Young men in the 17 – 25 age group are those most likely to be involved in car accidents.

Out of the 65 car users killed 58 of them died in cars on roads in non-built up areas.

There were in total more casualties on roads with a 30mph limit, however, it is the severity of the accidents on roads with a 60mph limit that has produced such a high figure for serious injuries and deaths on those roads.

The Friday rush hours of 4 – 6pm is a peak time for car accidents to occur. This will be a particularly busy time and folk impatient to get home for the weekend.

All the figures are from accidents reported to Police Scotland which means most bumps and  near misses are not recorded.

Reporter: Fiona Grahame