To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-3517 by Stewart Stevenson on 6 September 2007, for how many road traffic accidents on the (a) A835, (b) A836, (c) A837, (d) A838, (e) A894, (f) A897 and (g) A9 north of the Dornoch Bridge Roundabout foreign motorists have been deemed to be responsible in each year since 1999.
Data about injuryroad accidents is collected by the police and reported to the ScottishGovernment using the Stats 19 statistical report form. These returns cover onlyroad accidents in which oneor more people were injured and which become known to the police. The returnsdo not cover damage-only accidents or accidents of which the police are unawarebecause they were not reported by the public.
Statistics aboutthe factors which may have contributed to the occurrence of an accident areonly available with effect from the start of 2005, when the Stats 19specification was expanded to include such information. The following tabletherefore gives the total number of reported injury road accidents in 2005 and2006, which were identified in the Stats 19 returns as occurring on the A835,A836, A838, A894 and A9 (North of the Dornoch Bridge Roundabout), and whichinvolved motor vehicle drivers or riders who were coded in the Stats 19 returnsas being non-UK residents. There were no such accidents reported as occurringon the A837 and the A897 in those years.
It should benoted that the statistics given in the following table are based upon the datawhich is held in the central statistical database and which was collected bythe police at the time of the accident and subsequently reported to the Scottish Government. They may differ from any figures which the local authoritywould provide now, because they do not take account of any subsequent changesor corrections that local authorities may have made to the statisticalinformation, for use at local level, about the location of each accident, basedupon their knowledge of the roads and areas concerned.
The specificationof the Stats 19 returns includes a code which the police can use to identify asnon-UK residents any drivers or riders of vehicles involved in reportedaccidents, whose homes are outwith the UK.However, this information is not available in all cases - for example, the policewill have no knowledge of the areas of residence of hit-and-run drivers. Thetrue number of foreign motorists involved in accidents will therefore be higherthan would appear from the Stats 19 data, and the true number of accidentsinvolving foreign motorists will therefore be higher than the figures given inthe following table.
The contributoryfactors shown in the returns reflect the reporting officer’s opinion at thetime of making the report, and are not necessarily the result of extensiveinvestigation: subsequent enquiries could lead to a change in the opinion of the reporting officer. The factors are largely subjective, and depend upon theskill and experience of the reporting officer in reconstructing the eventswhich led directly to the accident, based upon the information available at thetime of making the report.
In the case ofmany accidents, contributory factors are recorded for more than one of the partiesinvolved in the accident. For example, in the reporting officer’s view, onedriver may have been “travelling too fast for the conditions”, another may havebeen “impaired by alcohol”, and a pedestrian may have “failed to look properly”- if so, the Stats 19 returns will show contributory factors for three of theparties involved in the accident. In such a case, the returns do not identifyone participant as responsible, since it appears more than one person’s actions(or lack of action) contributed to the occurrence of the accident. However, ifcontributory factors are recorded for only one participant, it would appearthat the reporting officer’s view is that that particular person wasresponsible for the accident. The following table therefore distinguishesbetween:
(a) accidents forwhich all the contributory factors were recorded for non-UK resident motorists,as they may be regarded as responsible for such accidents;
(b) accidents forwhich some of the contributory factors were recorded for non-UK residentmotorists, and other contributory factors were recorded for other participants(such as UK motorists, cyclists and pedestrians), as it appears that, in eachsuch case, responsibility should be split between the non-UK motorist(s) andone or more of the other participants in the accident; and
(c) accidents forwhich none of the contributory factors were recorded for non-UK residentmotorists, as it appears that they were not responsible for such accidents.
(contributoryfactors were recorded for all of the reported accidents involving non-UKresident motorists in 2005 and 2006.)
More informationabout contributory factors is given in an article on pages 53 to 74 of RoadAccidents Scotland 2005, copies of which are available in the Scottish ParliamentInformation Centre (Bib. number 41118).
Reported injuryroad accidents in 2005 and 2006, which were identified in the Stats 19 returnsas occurring on the A835, A836, A838, A894 and A9 (North of the Dornoch BridgeRoundabout), and which involved motor vehicle drivers or riders who were codedin the Stats 19 returns as being non-UK residents - by whether any of theContributory Factors were recorded for the non-UK motorists.
| Road | Year | All of the Contributory Factors Recorded were for Non-UK Motorists | Some of the Contributory Factors Recorded were for Non-UK Motorists | None of the Contributory Factors Recorded were for Non-UK Motorists | Total all such Accidents |
| A835 | 2005 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| | 2006 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| A836 | 2005 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| | 2006 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| A838 | 2005 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| | 2006 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| A894 | 2005 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| | 2006 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| A9 North of the Dornoch Bridge roundabout | 2005 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| | 2006 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
Note: No suchaccidents were reported as occurring on the A837 and the A897 in those years.
