Ground-breaking measures to cut the number of accidents on a notorious Fife road should be in place by this summer.
Councillors have endorsed plans to install electronic warning signs on the Standing Stane Road, where eight people have been killed since 2005.
The £80,000 system will be placed at two blackspots on the A915 – the junction to the Checkbar Road and the entrance to Wellsgreen golf range.
Rather than a standard slow down message, the new system will flash warnings tailored to the situation.
This includes telling drivers they are too close to the car in front or that vehicles are turning at junctions.
This proposal is excellent.”
Fife Council co-leader David Alexander.
Members of Fife Council’s Levenmouth area committee hope the state-of-the-art technology will reduce the number of crashes.
The authority’s lead road safety officer Steve Sellars said most accidents on the Standing Stane Road are caused by driver behaviour rather than speed.
“It’s the most heavily-trafficked road on the Fife Council network,” he said.
“The large volumes of traffic we experience there does lead to other issues, particularly vehicles travelling too close together.
“That leads to difficulties when traffic slows because it doesn’t leave enough reaction time for drivers.”
Mr Sellars said the signs will be bespoke and made specifically for the location.
He expects to install them early in the summer.
‘Communities regularly raise concerns’
Committee convener, SNP councillor Ken Caldwell, said communities regularly raise concerns regarding safety on the Standing Stane Road.
“We as a council have taken various measures over the years to tackle this,” he said.
“This has met with various degrees of success.
“I welcome the proposals here to install the vehicle activated signs.
“The road is frequently closed because of these accidents and anything we can do to stop that is a good thing.”
Fife Council’s SNP co-leader David Alexander expects the signs to make “a massive difference”.
“This proposal is excellent,” he said.
“These signs are effective because they flash when folk don’t expect to see a flash.
“It’s when folk are used to stuff that accidents happen.”
The system is the latest in a series on interventions
The technology is new to the market and has so far only been used on a section of trunk road maintained by Bear Scotland in Dumfries and Galloway.
The Standing Stane will become the first council-run road in the UK to have it.
The Vehicle Activated Sign (VAS) system will be the latest in a number of interventions on the A915.
So far, the council has reduced the speed limit from 60 to 40mph at the Leven end.
It has also introduced new lighting and road studs and cut back verges.
