Police have begun a crackdown on drivers who run red lights

Officers were in Dingwall on Friday to step up up their drive against offenders, whom they described as "potentially suicidal".

There are 27 level crossings with lights across the Highlands but cameras have been installed at only four.

Police said they had recorded 775 near collisions between vehicles and trains.

The cameras are triggered by a vehicle going through the crossing while the red lights are flashing.

Sergeant Robert Cameron, who has attended 19 accidents at level crossings in his 10 years in the Highlands, said that drivers ignoring the lights had been to blame in every incident.

Unusually, he said, it was motorists in their 40s who were the worst offenders.

Danger crossing

He and representatives of Network Rail were in Dingwall - a particular accident blackspot - to urge drivers to heed the red lights.

In March, a woman was injured in a collision involving a train and a car in the town.

The car was a write-off, but the train was not badly damaged.

Outside the Highlands, an elderly motorist was killed in February, when his car was hit by a train at Kirknewton level crossing in West Lothian,.

Police said, after the death of 77-year-old Robert Lindsay from Livingston, the level crossing was working properly.

Bristow Muldoon, convener of the Scottish Parliament's local government and transport committee and MSP for Livingston, expressed concern at the rising number of incidents on level crossings.