Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Fife Matters: Road safety roadshow should be compulsory viewing

The Standing Stane Road.
The Standing Stane Road.

The phrase “there’s been an accident on the Standing Stane Road” is probably one of the most uttered in our office.

Crashes come at a rate of three or four times a week on the main route between Kirkcaldy and Leven. On occasion, they are serious enough to result in it being closed for a prolonged period of time, causing major disruption elsewhere, including gridlock through the Wemyss villages.

Comments on social media are generally along the lines of the “that road again” or “something needs to be done” variety. And they’re right. But blaming the road is the wrong approach; it’s driver behaviour that really needs to change.

Strictly speaking, most accidents are not accidents at all: they are collisions which could and should have been avoided.

Throwing public money at a problem may ease it but installing safety measures such as traffic lights, roundabouts or a lower speed limit on that route won’t change the fundamental issue.

Most “accidents” are caused by excessive speed, aggressive behaviour behind the wheel or risk taking – or a combination of all three.

And drivers can blame road conditions, equipment failure and even other motorists for accidents but re-examining their own behaviour is often harder to do.

Which is why we need to highlight the importance of initiatives like the Safe Drive Stay Alive roadshow, which has again been delivering hard hitting and thought provoking messages to hundreds of Fife teenagers in the past few weeks.

The show is based around a filmed reconstruction of a road traffic collision and features real life testimonies by serving members of the emergency services.

The most poignant stories are relayed by family members and those who have been affected directly by a road crash.

The message is not sugar coated and neither should it be. And given the rising number of accidents and fatalities we have seen so far this year on Fife’s roads, perhaps it’s time for more adults to be given a reminder of their responsibilities behind the wheel – and not just those about to start taking lessons.

I suspect I’m not the only one who sees risky, high speed overtaking moves on a daily basis on single carriageway routes such as the Standing Stane or the A92, and these idiots need to be called out before the worst happens.

So forget spraying taxpayers’ cash on the wrong things.

Safe Drive Stay Alive should be compulsory viewing for all, and if it means one fewer death on our roads then it would be time and money better spent.