Road Safety

Everyone has the right to travel Shetland's roads free from danger. Since the start of 2000, Shetland has suffered 56 serious or fatal accidents. Drink driving, excessive speed and failure to wear seatbelts have all been identified as factors contributing to the severity of the injuries sustained.

Given the level of concern in Shetland, the main stakeholders formed a road safety initiative known as Operation Limit and their mission statement is:

"To reduce road accidents & casulaties within Shetland through a partnership between the community & key agencies utilising Education, Encouragement, Engineering & Enforcement"

This also compliments the aim of the National Road Policing Strategy 2001-2006, which is to:

"To make roads in Scotland safer by reducing death, injury and crime"

 

"It's Your Life: It's Your Choice"

“It’s Your Life: It’s Your Choice” is a 15-minute film which highlights the potentially devastating effects of drink or drug-driving, speeding and failing to wear a seatbelt, the three most common causes of serious accidents in Shetland.

The DVD is the end result of a multi-agency partnership, Operation Limit, which was established in 2002 in response to increasing concerns about the number of fatal and serious injury accidents across Shetland. The DVD, which has been funded by the Scottish Executive’s Alcohol Communications Fund, and is supported, locally by the Shetland Community Safety Partnership (CSP) and the Shetland Alcohol and Drugs Action Team (SADAT), has been distributed to schools and youth groups throughout Shetland.

The film features four people – Duncan MacKenzie, Procurator Fiscal; Barbara Leslie, an A&E nurse whose son Callum was seriously injured in an accident in January 2005, and Dave Diamond and Tony Mouat whose sons died in separate accidents.

Video clips of these people are available online here

Copies of the DVD are available free of charge by contacting Jenny Wylie - Community Safety Officer on 01595 744527.