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Police action targets bad NC500 driving


By SPP Reporter



A slow moving convoy of Minis.
A slow moving convoy of Minis.

A POLICE operation has laid bare the scale of irresponsible and inconsiderate driving along the North Coast 500 tourism route.

Officers targeted parts of the hugely popular route for a day last weekend and pulled over 85 motorists whose manner of driving was giving cause for concern, it has been revealed.

A number were given warnings but some have been reported to the procurator fiscal. Speeding was one of the major issues.

The action has buttressed continuing complaints from residents in communities along the route, which begins and ends in Inverness but takes in most of Sutherland.

However, a Sutherland businessman has hailed the economic boost to the area brought by NC500 and said better infrastructure is needed.

A fifth of the road trip – hailed as one of the best in the world by CNN among others – is on single track road.

Motorists have been accused of driving too fast and even of trying to set speed records around the route.

Drivers have also been lambasted for refusing to allow overtaking on single-track sections of the route or travelling in slow-moving convoys which make it impossible to overtake.

Only last week the Northern Times was contacted by Nedd resident Grant Nicoll who sent in a picture of a convoy of minis clogging up the B869 through the village.

Mr Nicoll said he feared what would have happened if the emergency services had needed to get past.

He called the convoy "unbelievable and totally irresponsible".

Officers from the Highlands and Islands Road Policing Unit descended on NC500 last Saturday, September 1,

The day of action was revealed on the force’s social media page, and officers patrolled the A9, A99 and A836.

A post on the page states: "Forty-five drivers received warnings and 12 drivers were reported to the procurator fiscal, seven of those in relation to speeding."

Social media users soon made their support for the police operation plain.

Sheena Cameron wrote: "About time, some folk think it’s a one-way race track."

And Mairi MacKinnon stated: "Fantastic, far too many eejits driving on these roads."

Ewan MacKeachan wrote: "Unfortunately, there are some who are selfish enough to treat the public roads as their own personal ‘track’ and expect everyone else to give them free passage.

"It is unacceptable and not on. Some of the standards of driving go way beyond simple speeding."

Sutherland businessman Paul Maden, who co-owns the popular Cocoa Mountain cafés at Durness and Dornoch, told the Northern Times: "For us it has been a record-breaking summer with more tourists and some people do abuse and not respect the route.

"I must admit that I now do not make a journey after 7am or before the evening, but we can’t have it both ways.

"The NC500 has been an outstanding success in bringing prosperity and jobs to the area and it’s just a pity that some drivers abuse it.

"But it is a minority who do upset others and cause problems, but better infrastructure, including road widening is needed as well as better driver education of the route."

NC500 stresses that it has produced a safe driving guide, available on its website, emphasising how to drive the route safely, responsibly and respectfully.

It also offers advice for tackling single track roads.

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