Police are investigating whether a slippery diesel particulate may be to blame for a series of deadly crashes on an Angus road.
The A937 near Craigo has become an accident blackspot with the most recent deadly crash involving a pair from Arbroath who died last week.
Scott Mowatt, 31, and Paisley Bates, 26, were killed when their car went through the parapet of a bridge on the route, which is about five miles north of Montrose, and plunged down an embankment.
Another man was seriously injured and taken to hospital for treatment.
The route is a straight stretch of road coming after a sharp bend.
Two other serious crashes have happened on the stretch in the past year.
Retired engineering consultant Ian Forrest lives in the area and believes diesel particulate from train engine exhaust emissions are to blame.
He said: “There have been three reported accidents that I know of, two of them fatal, causing the deaths of three people in the last 12 months.
“There have been so many accidents on that stretch of road quite a few people say it is diesel particulates making the road like ice.
“What else can it be on this particular straight piece of road that causes these accidents if it is not connected to the railway?
“They are crashing in the same area on the same piece of road. How can you come off the road when you are driving in a straight line?
“There is a small bridge over an insignificant stream and that has been hit. It’s one of those bridges that you can drive for years and you would never notice there is a bridge there.”
A Police Scotland spokesman said: “As a police investigation is ongoing it would be inappropriate for us to comment.”
Angus Council said it had passed the information to Police Scotland “to consider it during the current investigation”.
ScotRail said it would not make a comment while a police investigation was ongoing.
Student Leanne McDonald, 21, died when her Citroen C3 crashed in a single-vehicle accident and in February, a woman suffered serious leg injuries in a three-car crash on the road.
