Cyclists, farmers and lorry drivers recruited

CYCLISTS, farmers and lorry drivers will be recruited into local partnerships as part of a national push to end all road deaths by 2050.

Road fatalities in Tayside and Fife have dropped by more than 40%.

On average, 48 people died per year between 2004 and 2008 while an average of 27 people lost their lives in accidents on the region’s roads every year between 2015 and 2019.

There were 659 reported accidents in 2019 across Dundee, Fife, Perth and Kinross and Angus – down from 943 five years earlier.

Scotland’s transport agency is moving to build upon the falls with a new “framework”. It promises to cut road fatalities in half by 2030 and eliminate them by 2050.

The plans, at an early stage, will create a third “local” tier in road accident management. This will include representation from roads user groups, such a cyclists, horse riders, motorcyclists, farmers and the road haulage industry.

Transport secretary Michael Matheson said: “We’ve seen a 35% increase in traffic over the past 25 years and a 66% decrease in road collisions. We need to build on what we’ve achieved and our new framework will do so through a sharper focus, improved evaluation, mode specific targets and stronger connections between national and local levels.”

The Tayside numbers fell from 30 average deaths between 2004 and 2008 to 17 between 2015 to 2019. In Fife, the number dropped from 18 to 10. Over the past five years, Dundee city accidents dropped from 168 to 129. In Angus, the drop was 141 to 96.

In Perth and Kinross the 2014 accident total dropped more than 40% to 128 in 2019.

The Scottish Government has supported its framework with £500,000 in new funding.