Sherlock detected in safety ads

Road safety chiefs have copied innovative “thought graphics” used in the BBC’s Sherlock series for a new campaign to cut deaths on Scottish rural roads.

The TV and cinema campaign, which starts today, warns drivers against complacency and of the need to anticipate unexpected hazards.

Rural roads account for three in four deaths – or some 190 a year – with the campaign focused on men under 45, who account for three-quarters of those.

Echoing the latest Sherlock Holmes TV adaptation, which features the detective’s observations appearing as words on screen, the adverts show a driver’s-eye view, with words popping up to highlight potential dangers, such as a blind summit, pothole, verge or puddle.

The voiceover states: “If you do not have time to read the road, you will not have time to react.”

The adverts, filmed in Renfrewshire, are screened in pairs during TV advert breaks, with the first showing a driver successfully negotiating a skid after encountering a hazard.

However, in the second, which starts in the same way as the first, the driver rounds a corner to variously collide with a tractor, deer or another vehicle.

Transport minister Keith Brown, who launched the month-long campaign yesterday, said he hoped it would further cut Scotland’s road death toll, which is at an all time low.

He said: “It is extremely important to continue to drive the figures down.

“People think they know a road and take risks – they might not be speeding, but are driving too fast for the road.”

However, Mr Brown said cutting the 60mph limit on single carriageway roads was not the answer. He said: “It is not about the speed limit, but not taking into account other risks, such as cows or deer on the road.”

Michael McDonnell, director of Road Safety Scotland, which is responsible for the campaign, expected to cost some £500,000, said such initiatives helped prevent more deaths by educating drivers.

He said of the Sherlock influence: “It’s topical, with the words showing the potential hazards the driver should be seeing.”

June Ross, from Alford in Aberdeenshire, whose son 22-year-old Ian was killed on a road in the North-east, said constant repetition of such adverts was the key to getting the message across.

Speaking at the campaign launch, she said: “There needs to be continual messages about the consequences of what can happen on the roads.

“We need to keep reinforcing to all drivers that it could happen to them.”