Safety camera programme chief insists A90 move will save lives

A road safety chief said he was making “no apologies” for bringing average speed cameras to a major arterial route between Dundee and the Mearns in a bid to cut deaths.

Thirty average speed cameras will be installed on the A90 between Dundee and Stonehaven this year.

Luke Macauley, head of the Scottish Safety Camera Programme, is one of the key people behind the scheme.

He insisted the move would see fatal crash statistics drop.

“We install these cameras to save lives and improve road safety,” he said.

“Unfortunately, the A90 features as one of the trunk roads with the highest collision statistics.

“One death is one too many and you’ll get no apologies from us for doing what we can to reduce that.”

The A90 cameras will be the third such scheme in Scotland, following the introduction of average speed stretches on the A77 in Ayrshire in 2005 and the A9 between Dunblane and Inverness in 2014.

The cameras work by detecting vehicles’ number plates and using the time they take to travel from one camera to the next to calculate an average speed.

Figures from Transport Scotland show more than 13,000 speeding offences were logged on the A90 by speed cameras in 2015 – accounting for 20% of the total number recorded in Scotland.

In addition, there have been 60 serious or fatal collisions on the road in the last five years.

Mr Macauley said behaviour on the road has to be improved: “The cameras don’t make driving any more difficult.

“We’re looking to improve driver behaviour.”