Road safety device on Dounreay straight breaks loose and rips into car
Instead of his car being damaged by one of the many Caithness potholes a driver near Dounreay almost came a cropper due to an automatic traffic counter (ATC).
The device had been stretched across the road to monitor traffic on the notorious ‘Dounreay straight’ where speeding motorists have been snared on countless occasions.
Caithness Roads Recovery (CRR) included the images published here on its Facebook page in which an ATC cable became entangled in the wheel and axle causing damage to a vehicle.
The CRR post reads: “An unusual one tonight. What you see here is a speed sensor cable which had been placed on the Dounreay Straight, presumably for a council speed survey, but which has ended up wrapping itself around a wheel and tyre, puncturing the tyre and causing nasty bodywork damage.
“Good job it didn't rip the brake lines or wrap round the steering. Best be aware in case there are any more loose ones about.”
Iain Gregory who runs the CRR page said that Highland Council had been made aware of the issue and that the unnamed motorist was happy to have the images published.
The ATC system involves cables being placed across a road connected to a data-gathering device. The system gathers information on vehicle volumes, speeds, and classifications without the need for manual intervention and claims to “streamline the data collection process significantly”.
Though it is intended to improve road safety, on this occasion the ATC appears to have come close to causing a serious accident.
One local commented on the CRR page saying: “Glad I or some other guy on a motorbike didn't go over that thing, God knows what would have happened.” Another wrote: “I burst 2 tyres on the same speed lines at Dounreay about 3 weeks ago and phoned the council emergency line to tell them to remove them.”
Another group member posted: “The one on the back road at Achvarasdal also appears to be down to one wire across the road. Are they just cheap crap the council have bought, or I wonder could it be vandalism?”
Many urged the motorist to contact the local authority for compensation as repairs, they felt, could be pricey.
When Highland Council was contacted it denied it was responsible for the ATC and wrote: “Transport Scotland’s media office has advised us that ‘the speed surveys are for the North Safety Camera Unit (so Police Scotland)’.”
Police Scotland also denied responsibility and directed us towards Tracsis which provides software and hardware technologies for collecting traffic data and the wider transport industries.
Graham Hambley, head of analysis at Tracsis said: “We are unaware of the incident, and nothing has been reported to us about this. However, we have spoken to our client who has provided us with this statement: ‘Transport Scotland have instructed these speed surveys through Police Scotland as part of a short-term deployment of temporary average speed cameras on the A836.’.”
He added that though it is very rare for a tube to come up and damage a vehicle it is not unheard of. “They are very secure and an industry-standard method of collecting speed data.”
