By ELIZABETH HAIGH, SENIOR NEWS REPORTER
Foreign drivers in Scotland are being urged to purchase 'T-plates' after warnings Highland pile-ups caused by people being unused to driving on the left side of the road have surged by almost 50 per cent.
The signs, which are in the same style as learner or recently passed plates - known as L-plates and P-plates - feature a large green letter T with the word 'tourist' written beneath.
Creator Robert Marshall, a hotelier from Kingussie, first created the plates after his own stressful experience of driving in Tenerife.
They are designed to let other drivers know those ahead of them may be unfamiliar with the roads and require more time or patience.
It comes after Transport Scotland revealed in May that the number of crashes caused by 'inexperience of driving on the left' rose by 46 percent in just one year.
The body said the figures, from 2023, include a collision which resulted in one person's death.
In the same year, the majority of tourists in Scotland had travelled from mainland Europe or the US, where vehicles are driven on the right-hand side of the road.
Mr Marshall, who launched a website selling the plates in 2023, told BBC Radio Scotland on Thursday the idea was born out of his 'awful' driving experience in Tenerife.
Creator Robert Marshall, a hotelier from Kingussie, first created the plates after his own stressful experience of driving in Tenerife
The plates are being sold after Transport Scotland revealed in May that the number of crashes caused by 'inexperience of driving on the left' rose by 46 percent in just one year
Mr Marshall launched the plates with the help of road safety campaigner Laura Hanser (pictured), who has put the product to the test on the roads
He said: 'Just reaching roundabouts, junctions, just starting the journey initially - I was on the wrong side of the road, every control and dial was in a different place - and I just was screaming at my partner, "I wish these people knew I was a tourist."'
He added: 'It's a simple idea but it's one that's really started conversations about road safety.'
Mr Marshall launched the plates with the help of road safety campaigner Laura Hanser, who has put the product to the test on the roads.
She told BBC Radio Scotland: 'I went out on a single carriageway at 50mph. I would let different vehicles catch up with me.
'You were very aware of a couple of seconds until they acknowledged that and there was a definite pull back... in acknowledgement that that plate was on your car.'
In 2023, there were 35 collisions involving tourists who were not used to driving on the left, compared to 24 the previous year.
And Scotland's roads have seen several high profile crashes involving tourists which have led to significant loss of life.
Katie Strong, Jared Bastion and Mary-Lou Mauch died in a crash on the A9 while on holiday from the US in 2022.
Italian naval officer Alfredo Ciociola was convicted of killing five people, including his four-year-old son, in a crash on the A96 near Keith in the same year.
In 2020 Gerrit Reickmann, from Germany, caused the death of his girlfriend Melina Rose Päprer when he was involved in a head-on crash while driving on the wrong side of the road near Drumnadrochit in the Highlands.
