Brake has called for several measures to be introduced as it highlights Road Safety Week

A road safety charity is calling for new measures to ensure drivers go slower on Scotland’s roads.

Brake wants speed limiting technology to be fitted to all new vehicles to help drivers stay within the speed limit.

And as part of its campaigning for Road Safety Week – which runs until Sunday (26 Nov) - the charity is also backing calls by Green MSP Mark Ruskell for a default 20mph limit in all built up areas.

Director Jason Wakeford said: "Speeding remains a major problem, causing untold suffering to families up and down the country.

“Driving is unpredictable and if something unexpected happens on the road ahead, such as a child stepping out from between parked cars, it's a driver’s speed that determines whether they can stop in time and, if they can’t, how hard they will hit. That's why we're encouraging everyone to Speed Down Save Lives for Road Safety Week this year.”

Brake has said that intelligent speed adaptation technology will help to save lives. It has highlighted that almost 10,000 people were injured on roads in Scotland in the 12 months to June. Provisional statistics from the Department for Transport reveal that 9,705 people were injured and 159 were killed in crashes on Scottish roads in the year to June 2017.

Other government figures, published earlier in the year, showed a 14% rise in road deaths in Scotland during 2016 compared with 2015. A new analysis by Brake reveals that exceeding the speed limit was a factor in 291 crashes in Scotland last year, a rise of over a quarter (26%) since 2013. Travelling too fast for conditions contributed to 510 of the crashes during 2016.