Hansard

I absolutely agree that more could be done on that. I will say more about younger drivers in a moment, but they certainly have a propensity to be a bit more impetuous and to give less consideration to their surroundings on the roads and to other drivers.

About two months ago, I had another meeting with representatives from Transport Scotland and Scotland TranServ about the condition of the trunk road network in my constituency and the condition of the M8 as it comes into it. I put on record my thanks to both organisations for the fact that, as a result of my continued lobbying, improvements are being made to the network and road users are beginning to have better travel experiences. I am sure that both organisations will be delighted to be receiving fewer emails from me now—although I am still on their case, because I want further improvements to take place.

At the end of that discussion, we spoke about road maintenance and about how some road closures affect communities and drivers. I was provided with some examples of the workforce of those organisations being threatened, both verbally and by drivers speeding towards workers as if to knock them over. Ultimately, the workers are there fixing the roads or laying new ones—they are actually there to help us. Indeed, they help every single person who uses the road network. They do not deserve physical or verbal abuse from inconsiderate motorists. It is just ridiculous that some idiots think it is acceptable to drive their car at a person.

This week, Brake published research on road safety, and it is clear that the issue will not go away—it is something that we have to continually talk about. Of the 2,000 people who took part in that research, nearly one third had had either a collision or a near miss in the previous 12 months. The proportion rises to more than half when we look at just young adults—18 to 34-year-olds. That strengthens Gillian Martin’s point.