A series of crashes on the A90 dual carriageway at Portlethen has prompted local Liberal Democrat councillor Ian Mollison to call for further investigations to see if there is a common cause.
He explained: “The recent crashes have caused huge tail-backs on the A90 as morning commuters try to get to work. The delays have been horrendous.
“Thankfully there have been no fatalities or serious injuries.
“However accidents keep happening at the flyover to Badentoy and Asda. In one crash a five-car pile-up caused eight miles of tailbacks during rush hour on 7 January. The for a second time in 48 hours commuters to Aberdeen faced more traffic chaos when three vehicles were in a crash on the northbound A90 at Portlethen.
“The flyover and its access roads were fine when they were built, but I understand they are not at today’s standards. The sightlines and the merge lanes do not meet today’s more exacting criteria.
“There’s more traffic and everyone is in a rush.
“Although some work has been done recently at the roundabout at the entrance to the Badentoy industrial estate, is it sufficient?
“I have asked the police and Transport Scotland – who are responsible for the A90 – to see if there is any common link. Too many accidents are happening there for it just to be co-incidence.
“One Portlethen constituent told me that she is very worried about the number of accidents happening at the flyover on an almost daily basis during the morning rush hour. She feels people are driving too fast and the sliproad is too short.
“Her suggestion is for the speed limit to be reduced to 40mph at the morning rush hour on the northbound carriageway. I am not so sure as that may cause other problems, but I have asked the police and Transport Scotland to consider her suggestion.”
Hi,
I drive on this road every day from Laurencekirk and feel that the reason for the almost daily crashes is fairly clear. Too many drivers in the overtaking lane driving too fast and ridiculously too close to each other. I regularly see 5 cars within one safe stopping distance.
A 50mph speed limit in rush hour, forcing people to use both lanes (the inside lane is usually empty apart from a few lorries) and a well publicised crack down on tailgating would solve this. We’d all get into work a lot faster and far more safely.
I would agree with your comment about tailgating – that really bugs me. Lorry drivers can be quite intimidating, looming over the car in front, however many car drivers do it too. Although a 50mph limit would seem at first sight to be an attractive way forward, the experts including the police and Transport Scotland advise that there would be unintended difficulties. Apparently it becomes more difficult to get out of side roads on to the dual carriageway. I dirve the road every day too and see consequences of thoughtless driving. I suspect these drivers would still be as thoughtless whatever the speed.