A REPORT set to go before councillors this week revealed Transport Scotland do not keep any records of pedestrian accidents where timber safety fencing has been installed.
The issue was discovered in a reply from John Malcolm, ministerial communications officer of Scotland Transerv, to Argyll and Bute Council’s head of roads and amenity services, Stewart Turner.
The report was up for discussion on Wednesday at the Mid Argyll, Kintyre and Islands area committee in Campbeltown.
Transport Scotland has come under increasing fire in recent months after erecting pedestrian safety restraints along the A83, including Inveraray and Cairndow.
Accident
The restraints have been put up as a preventative measure intended to protect pedestrians and maintenance workers where there is a drop of more than 1.5m.
Two weeks ago one driver escaped with only minor injuries after his car left the road at Inveraray, ploughing through the barriers.
The car was penetrated in several places by the fencing, sparking fresh safety fears.
But John Malcolm said road user safety was the underpinning factor in all engineering works and projects undertaken by Transport Scotland.
He said: ‘The pedestrian safety fence which is being erected complies fully with current high standards in the Design Manual for Roads and Bridges and does not present any increase in risk for drivers who may collide with it.
‘The road user sightlines are not compromised in any way by the erection of this safety enhancement to the Trunk Road network.’
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