Lawford Kidd's Blog

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) has called on the newly-elected Government to commit to the safety of young drivers.

The safety charity is lobbying ministers to agree to a Green Paper on young drivers in a bid to save the hundreds of 17-24 year olds who are killed or seriously injured on the roads each year.

According to RoSPA, a total of 131 young drivers were killed on the roads in 2013, while 1,159 were left with serious injuries.

The Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) is calling for action to be taken to tackle the dangers faced by HGV drivers and other transport workers.

To assist, IOSH is hosting a safety event later next month (Wednesday 3 June) to highlight the various hazards faced by workers in the transportation sector.

Google’s self-driving cars have been involved in at least eleven road accidents since they were introduced in 2009, however, according to the technology giants, the accidents have been a result of other drivers crashing into the smart cars.

According to Google, the vast majority of incidents have occurred when drivers hit the back of the smart cars when they stop. The figures come following the mainstream press in the United States criticising the cars.

Chris Urmson, the director of Google’s self-driving car programme said that there have been “11 minor accidents (light damage, no injuries) during 1.7 million miles of autonomous and manual driving with our safety drivers behind the wheel”.

A man has admitted causing the death of a motorcyclist as a result of careless driving on the A9 last year.

The 47-year-old admitted to driving recklessly and causing a crash that killed a biker and seriously injured his wife.

The incident, which occurred in the Highlands on 6 March 2014 saw William Couston pull out of a junction and into the path of the oncoming motorcycle, leading to the death of 55-year-old Nigel Mills. It was understood that Mr Mills and his wife had been on their way to the Scottish Motorcycle Show near Edinburgh.

Certain Scottish school children in Inverness have been asked by the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) to help identify construction site hazards, with the aim being to increase awareness of potential dangers on building sites.

The children were/will be shown an image of a construction site – which was created by IOSH's Highlands and Islands branch as part of the Safe Highlanders 2015 Event – and were/will be asked to point out various dangers using magnetic symbols.