A van driver who drove down a closed road and smashed into the back of a 20-tonne road planer has been fined.
The 60-year-old ignored signs warning that the A920 Oldmeldrum to Pitmedden road was closed last month, and continued along the road – before crashing into a piece of heavy machinery being unloaded.
The accident happened at about 7am on February 10, when the road was closed for resurfacing works.
And last night, Aberdeenshire Council warned people to be aware of road signs and the dangers posed to road workers if they are ignored.
Despite several signs advising of the closure and the diversion – which took motorists on a lengthy route via Tarves – the van driver continued down the road, hitting a piece of equipment on a straight stretch of the road.
The council’s road team were not yet at the site, but contractors Markon were there delivering the road planer, which is used to break up the road’s surface.
Walter Bruce, the road team’s supervisor, said: “By ignoring road closure signs, the man not only put himself and his passengers in serious danger, but could have killed on-site road workers.
“The planer had just been off-loaded from the lorry and had one of Markon’s workers been at the rear of the planer, there would surely have been a fatality.”
Council bosses claim the incident is just one example of a “chronic disregard” motorists in the north-east have for roadwork signs and road closures.
Cones, signs and barriers and even concrete blocks have been moved by drivers desperate to take the shortest route to their destination.
Ian Daniels, a principle roads engineer for Aberdeenshire Council, said: “Motorists sometimes choose to go through closures outwith typical working hours or during the night, hedging their bets that they’ll ‘get away with it’.
“It was still quite dark when the van driver decided to go through the closure on the A920 – taking a chance at any time of the day is just not worth the risk, both to the driver and road workers that could be on-site.”
The van driver was issued with a £60 fixed penalty notice.
Inspector Jamie Harrison, from the Formartine community policing team, urged motorists to obey traffic directions, adding: “This was a serious collision that could easily have had tragic consequences.”
A spokeswoman for Barratt Homes declined to comment on the incident.