By Mike Donachie and Rob McLaren

THE A9 through Perthshire has been confirmed as part of “the deadliest road in Scotland” by the Scottish Executive, opposition MSPs claimed yesterday.

New figures on fatalities show that the road—which runs from Perth north to the Highlands, and south to Stirling—claimed 82 lives over the last five years. The A90 Perth to Aberdeen route also fares badly in the list of road casualties.

There were 17 fatalities and 209 injuries on the A9 last year alone, and 13 deaths and 269 injuries on the A90. The A9 and A90 also led the Scottish Executive list in 2003, with 20 and 13 deaths respectively.

Other roads to feature on the list of Scotland’s most dangerous roads include the A85 from Perth through Crieff and right across to Connel on the west coast, with seven deaths and 105 injuries; the A92 from Dunfermline to Dundee and up the coast to Stonehaven (seven deaths and 121 injuries), and the A91 St Andrews to Stirling, with five fatalities and 89 injuries last year.

The A9—the subject, with support from The Courier, of vehement campaigning by locals determined to see it improved—was singled out as “Scotland’s most dangerous road” by Tory MSP Murdo Fraser, while the SNP’s John Swinney called it “horrendously dangerous.”

Both demanded action from the Executive, supporting calls for full dual carriageway to be installed, a move designed to cut accidents.

Mr Swinney also condemned continuing delays to the promised upgrade of the Ballinluig junction, which, based on the original Executive promise, should be happening this summer, but is now more than a year behind schedule.

The figures emerged in response to a parliamentary question from the Conservatives, and provided a direct comparison of the A9, the A90 which links Perth, Dundee and Aberdeen, and the M8-A8 between Edinburgh and Glasgow.

As well as staying consistently in Scotland’s top five for overall numbers of accidents, the A9 had the highest fatality rate in 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2004.

However, the Scottish Executive defended its investment programme, urging caution on how the statistics were read and pointing out that the A9 is one of the longest roads in Scotland.

The MSPs seized on the numbers as proof of local claims that their frightening transport artery should be given a higher priority for public investment.

Mr Fraser said, “Unfortunately, these figures do not come as a surprise, as people locally have known for a long time that the A9 is Scotland’s most dangerous road.

“Unless and until we see the A9 dualled in its entirety all the way from Perth to Inverness then I am afraid that we will continue to see a high accident rate with many more unnecessary deaths and injuries on the A9.

“I will continue to press the Scottish Executive for action on this matter. We must see action taken on this road in order to stop the fatalities. This is something that can be done and I believe the Scottish Executive must act to improve the safety measures on the road.”

Mr Swinney, the North Tayside MSP who began the campaigns for dualling and improving Ballinluig’s interchange, said, “These figures demonstrate that the A9 is a horrendously dangerous road and is responsible for the largest number of fatalities over the last five years of any road in Scotland.

“It’s a compelling case for the Government to move away from the very slow, piecemeal improvements they plan to make to the A9 and set out the bold strategy to make the road dual carriageway from Perth to Inverness.”

He said the delays on Ballinluig proved the “piecemeal” approach was not working and, instead, “prompt action” was needed on the entire road.

The head of Tayside Police’s road policing unit last night claimed that the number of serious accidents in Tayside was showing a downward trend—despite a rise in the number of people killed and seriously injured on Tayside’s roads last year.

The force’s annual report, published earlier this year, shows the number of people killed and seriously injured rose from 323 in 2003-4 to 349 in 2004-5, including 42 children.

Chief Inspector Sandy Bowman said, “The A9 and A90 are major arterial routes which see a heavy volume of traffic between major cities throughout the year.

“Tragically the number of people killed and seriously injured on roads in Tayside rose last year—but the trend over the last 10 years is downwards, with a few fluctuations.

“We are trying to do all we can do to reduce the number of accidents on our roads. We have road safety officers educating people from children to the elderly.”

“We work with local councils, BEAR Scotland and the Scottish Executive to try to get through to people who choose not to abide by the rules of the road, which is a very selfish act.”

Chief Inspector Bowman said that the public had a “big role” to play in cutting the number of road accidents and fatalities.

“Everybody has a responsibility for road safety—but we still see people driving too fast or using a mobile phone when there is no need to do so. The public has a big role to play.”

A Scottish Executive spokesman said, “The Scottish Executive is working in partnership with the police, local authorities, health boards, motoring organisations and other interested parties to reduce the number of fatalities and injuries on our roads, including our important strategic routes such as the A9 and the A90.

“For the A9, the Road Safety Group, which includes the police, local authorities, BEAR and the Executive, is working to improve safety. A full accident analysis of the route has been completed and will help inform investment in future work on the road.

“Much is being done to improve safety on the A90 trunk road. Some of the safety improvement work recently completed on the A90 includes improvements at junctions such as at Bogindollo, Durris, Maryculter Marykirk and Cruden Bay junctions together with other safety-related measures.

“Safety improvement schemes due for completion this financial year include, junction improvements at Laurencekirk, Hilton Drive, Aberdeen. Other schemes due to start this year include the Hatton Bends improvement scheme and a junction improvement at Finavon.”