Safety campaigners say the threat of being caught on dashcam may make people drive better and safer on the notorious A9 road in Scotland.

The Press and Journal reports road safety charity IAM RoadSmart has backed a campaign to use the portal quoting Neil Greig, the group’s policy and research director, as saying: “The system works well in England, having been adopted by many forces. It stops ‘trial by social media’ as you can’t post footage once it is entered as evidence.”

He added: “I often hear about drivers having at least one OMG moment every time they go up and down the A9.

“If it became well-known that you might be ‘dash-cammed’, it might help reduce extreme driving behaviour.

“It would be a slow burn effect, however, and wouldn’t eliminate the mistakes, rather the deliberate bad driving.”

The National Dash-Cam Safety Portal was created in the UK in 2018, but Police Scotland is one of three UK forces not to join up.

Laura Hansler from the A9 Dual Action Group told the paper: “It might be a deterrent and anything that can deter (bad driving) the better.”

NDSP allows car drivers and other people to upload footage captured on dashcams directly to police. It can then be used as evidence.

Nearly 90,000 video uploads from dashcam, helmet camera and mobile phone clips have been sent to police forces. The uploaded videos and witness statements are viewable only by the police force to which they are submitted.

(Picture – Nextbase)