A Moray councillor is calling for safety improvements to be made on a section of the A98 Fochabers to Cullen road near Buckie after being involved in an accident herself.
Sonya Warren’s car was rear-ended while driving along the A98 last Wednesday evening.
She had stopped to turn down Slackhead Road when another driver drove into the back of her – causing her car to be pushed onto the other side of the road.
Thankfully, there was no oncoming traffic.
“All I could see at the point of impact was her face in my rearview mirror,” she recalled. “It was just her horrified face.
“I was pushed quite a distance along the road and onto the other side, if there had been ongoing traffic I wouldn’t be here to tell the tale.”
The Buckie councillor was taken to the hospital to be checked over and has been left bumped, bruised and shaken by her experience.
The boot of her car has been completely crumpled, and the road was closed while both vehicles were recovered,
Now, Mrs Warren is ramping up road safety and is calling for improvements to be made to the stretch of road, including introducing stacking lanes at the junctions.
‘Council needs to really look at A98 safety now’
The A98 is a 60mph stretch of straight road, with multiple junctions and poor visibility in places.
It is used by lorries serving the harbour in Buckie and maltings in Portgordon as well as tractors for the nearby farms.
Mrs Warren believes drivers are using straight sections as their chance to overtake slower vehicles, and are driving too fast to realise people are using the junctions.
“I know what a dangerous bit of road it is,” she said. “People often speed coming up because they’ve just come out a 50mph speed limit at Arradoul. They come round the bends and it’s the first bit of straight road.
“You play Russian Roulette inching out onto the road.
“If there were stacking lanes at these junctions people wouldn’t be running into the back of you, they might be going past you very quickly, but a stacking lane is far safer and more effective as is reducing the speed limit.
“And I do think the council needs to really look at this now, maybe it is a financial issue, but what price do you put on someone’s life? And that what it’s going to come to.”
Mrs Warren wants the 50mph speed limit extended along the A98, and along the other side of Arradoul from the Buckie junction.
She also thinks the visibility at the junctions should be improved and double white lines should be introduced to stop overtaking.
A Moray Council spokeswoman said: “We are aware of the accident and our road safety team is currently reviewing the details of the accident provided by Councillor Warren, as well as the roadside environment.”
The Buckie councillor is planning on talking to local MSPs Richard Lochhead and Karen Adam for their support in improving the safety of the road.
‘Thankful and grateful I’m walking’
Mrs Warren thanked the emergency services and everyone who stopped to help and offer her support.
Since the accident, she has been inundated by messages from other people who have had similar experiences.
According to the councillor, there are “constant” near misses on the A98, but because they’re near misses they are not reported.
She added: “A lot of people don’t report accidents because they don’t want it on insurance claim if it’s just a minor bump, but then it’s not highlighted as a hotspot and it’s not going to be until there’s a fatality that it is.
“I could have been a fatality, I’m not happy to be an accident statistic, but I’m thankful and grateful I’m walking – stiff and sore and blue and all the rest of it.”
She stressed motorists should always adapt to road conditions, and if visibility is poor then drivers should reduce their speed.
“Maybe you’re quite happy taking risks for yourself but you’ve got to be considerate of other drivers and other people on the road.
“It doesn’t take much to leave an extra five minutes early to make sure you don’t have to rush, you don’t have to stress, you don’t have to speed,” she finished.
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