Rise in crashes caused by tourists driving on wrong side of road

The number of crashes caused by visitors to Scotland driving on the wrong side of the road has increased by 46% in a year.

Figures released by Transport Scotland showed there were 35 collisions caused by "inexperience of driving on the left" in 2023, up from 24 the previous year.

Campaigners have described the rise as "disappointing" and called for additional signage and prompts to be put in place as a reminder for tourists, particularly in rural areas.

Road Safety Scotland said there was no clear reason for the increased frequency of crashes.

One of the collisions recorded in the 2023 figures resulted in a death.

Signage is often placed at airports and other transport hubs and car hire facilities reminding drivers that vehicles in the UK drive on the left side of the road.

The vast majority of visitors to Scotland in 2023 came from mainland Europe and the United States – all of which are countries in which motorists drive on the right.

Sharon Anslow, founder of the Keep Left campaign, said more had to be done to educate drivers.

Mrs Anslow was injured when her car was pushed into a ditch during a head-on collision with a tourist while driving to work in Portree on the Isle of Skye in December 2018.

She had to be freed from the wreckage by fire crews and said she was forced to move house due to the trauma of driving on the same route during her work commute.

The other driver involved in the crash received a fixed penalty notice despite driving on the wrong side of the road for at least a mile before the crash.

Mrs Anslow told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme she had secured funding to put up 250 signs along the roads in Skye and Lochalsh to remind drivers where they should be.

But she said the onus should be on councils and road managers to keep other motorists safe.

"Raising awareness is fantastic and there are lots of resources online," she said.

"But it's not the answer. We should be providing, not just the tourists, but the locals across the whole of Scotland, with proper roads to drive on, with proper signage and directional arrows to keep everybody safe."

In 2022, Italian naval officer Alfredo Ciociola was convicted of killing five people, including his four-year-old son, in a crash on the A96 near Keith.

Two years earlier, Gerrit Reickmann, from Germany, caused the death of his girlfriend Melina Rose Päprer when he was involved in a head-on crash while driving on the wrong side of the road near Drumnadrochit in the Highlands.

Road Safety Scotland director, Michael McDonnell, said tourists often struggled in more rural areas, where there was little to no traffic to "prompt" them into driving on the correct side.

He also said tiredness could be a factor.

The organisation has worked with VisitScotland and car hire companies to educate tourists on where they should be driving.

They have provided vehicle rental companies with wristbands with the message "drive on the left" in nine different languages.

It is hoped that drivers would see them while they have their hands on the steering wheel.

Mr McDonnell said passengers also had a role to play in keeping the driver aware of where they should be on the road.

He said: "The difficulty we have in Scotland is that one of the attractions of the country is the remote, rural areas, the places people like to visit with its tremendous beauty spots.

"Quite often, people, when they go into these areas, they encounter less traffic and so, when there is a lot of traffic on the road you get hints as to where you should be.

"The same thing happens early in the morning or late at night when people set off, so you get this increase just when there isn't traffic on the road."