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Laplace
711 posts
51 months
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Glad to hear you are ok, sounds terrifying.
At least money which could have been used for upgrading the A9 was spent on the success story that is the Edinburgh trams.
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Olivera
1,725 posts
108 months
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Glad to hear you are fine. The A9 is of course a poor road for the volume of traffic it carries, but even so I would still be livid with the numpty that rear-ended you into oncoming traffic. The road might be busy and treacherous, but it still doesn't excuse dangerous tailgating.
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ViperPict
Original Poster
8,416 posts
106 months
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bigblock said: Whilst I agree that a lot of the problems with the A9 are caused by poor driving standards the integral design of the road must bear some of the responsibility.
Ironically it was originally destined to be upgraded to a dual carriageway in the 1970 Scottish trunk road improvement plan. By 1979 this had been abandoned but unfortunately the new single carriageway road that was built between Perth and Inverness followed the design of the proposed dual layout. This has resulted in dangerously positioned junctions and long radius curves which severely limit the view of oncoming traffic reducing the opportunities to overtake safely.
The A9 is inherently dangerous because of its poor design and with a higher volume of traffic using it than ever before accidents like the OPs will continue with only luck deciding the outcome.
Absolutely true. Terribly badly designed road. Almost no regard for safety at some locations.
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Who me ?
3,858 posts
81 months
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The A9 is one of the problem roads. The other is the A82. Now ,whilst further south ,years ago ,work went ahead to create motorways to link the deep south with Glasgow ,and Newcastle, little money was spent in even making both roads DC for their total length . And when Scotland got partial independence from Whitehall, where was the money spent - the Holyrood white elephant, the Edinburgh tram fiasco.Anywhere but improving the basic north/south road system. I don't know about the A9, wrong side of the country, but I've been driving the A82 for almost 45 years now, and there's only piecemeal improvement . I've heard that in the name of the great god "road safety" much was spent on cameras ( safety or otherwise) on the A9, but it's a measure of their success that such stories as this keep appearing. Perhaps if the A9 had a compliment of Traffic police equal to a small percentage of the reported number of cash cameras, this problem would not exist .
Anyway, glad to know you ( if not car) are safe & well .
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BonzoG
1,312 posts
83 months
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The A9 is a manufactured disaster. Scameras on the idiot-proof overtaking stretches, so the morons with a photocopier to sell instead dice with death on the poorly-sighted stretches. At-grade junctions on fast stretches. Wide, inviting sections with smooth curves and the odd 'slip' lane at T-junctions, just enough to confuse someone with their head in the clouds into thinking they are actually joining a dual carriageway, and going against the traffic until they either hit something, s  t themselves at what's coming, or see a white arrow (hint!) pointing at them. Enough traffic that you're as well just not trying to make progress, not overtaking, just sit back, leave a nice gap and don't worry about an extra 5mph because you'll all be bunched up behind a tractor in 15 mins anyways. In fact never mind the nice gap, it'll have 4-rings of TDI-Power on a mission filling it quicker than you can fill yer breeks as he jousts with oncoming traffic to get there 2 minutes early for a performance review meeting. On a busy day I can do Inverness to Glasgow nearly as quickly via the A82. The quiet stretches are more fun, the scenery's nicer and you usually get to see some nice machinery too.
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ViperPict
Original Poster
8,416 posts
106 months
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BonzoG said: The A9 is a manufactured disaster. Scameras on the idiot-proof overtaking stretches, so the morons with a photocopier to sell instead dice with death on the poorly-sighted stretches. At-grade junctions on fast stretches. Wide, inviting sections with smooth curves and the odd 'slip' lane at T-junctions, just enough to confuse someone with their head in the clouds into thinking they are actually joining a dual carriageway, and going against the traffic until they either hit something, s t themselves at what's coming, or see a white arrow (hint!) pointing at them. Enough traffic that you're as well just not trying to make progress, not overtaking, just sit back, leave a nice gap and don't worry about an extra 5mph because you'll all be bunched up behind a tractor in 15 mins anyways. In fact never mind the nice gap, it'll have 4-rings of TDI-Power on a mission filling it quicker than you can fill yer breeks as he jousts with oncoming traffic to get there 2 minutes early for a performance review meeting. On a busy day I can do Inverness to Glasgow nearly as quickly via the A82. The quiet stretches are more fun, the scenery's nicer and you usually get to see some nice machinery too. Exactly. I may be taking the train more from now on.
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munroman
1,413 posts
53 months
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Glad you are OK.
If a fraction of the money pissed down holes in Princes Street had been used to dual the A9 then it could have been finished long before 2020.
Even before dualling I would like to see a few things done.
1) Remove the crazy 40mph limit for Artics on the single carriageway sections, the present limit leads to rolling road blocks, congestion, then a mad sprint when the dual carriageway sections arrive. Throw in a tractor and the fun begins.
2) A LOT more traffic police pulling in tailgating eejits, we got passed by a laydee near Blair Atholl, in the 3 or so miles before the DC section she touched her brakes 72 times.....
3) CCTV on the known trouble spots so that bad drivers making dodgy overtakes can be pulled down the road.
4) Oh, and prison for the TIE incompetents and councillors.
I have seen way too many near misses on this road, I am using it this weekend and it does worry me.
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drangular
189 posts
30 months
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The SNP minority Government did try to stop the tram project and I'm sure it had plans for the dualling of the A9 when elected in 2007. It's proposals were defeated however. This from Wikipedia:-
"The future of the Edinburgh Trams project came under threat in 2007 when the Scottish National Party (SNP) published in its manifesto for the Scottish Parliamentary election its intention to cancel the scheme, along with the Edinburgh Airport Rail Link, in order to save a total of £1.1bn.
In the debate on the Government's Transport program various opposition politicians made statements defending the Edinburgh Trams project. In particular, Labour MSP Wendy Alexander said "The Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change claimed that the costs were out of control, but they are not."[19]
Following a vote which it lost in the Scottish Parliament, the SNP-led minority Scottish Government agreed to continue with the line from the Airport to Leith on condition that no more public money would be supplied if the project overran. A report by Audit Scotland, commissioned by the Scottish Government, confirmed that the cost projections were sound.[20][21]
Initial costs for the scheme were £498 million, with £375 million funding from the Scottish Government and £45 million by Edinburgh council.[22]
On 25 October 2007 the City of Edinburgh Council gave approval to the Final Business Case. Approval was given by the Council[23] on 22 December 2007 for tie to sign contracts with CAF[24] for the supply of the vehicles and BBS (a consortium of Siemens and Bilfinger Berger)[25] for the design, construction and building of the network. Contract negotiations were concluded in April 2008 with construction of the network commencing in June 2008.[26]"
The project is and Edinburgh Council one not a Scottish Government one.
I think it's fair to say that the SNP Scottish Government elected in 2011 inherited the mess and has tried to ensure that it is completed to a reasonable standard.
I'm fairly sure the SNP have always supported the dualling of the A9 and it is now in the Transport Spending Plan. However as we know all capital spending is severely curtailed at present and will be for the forseeable future.
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Gingernuts
319 posts
79 months
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Glad to hear you were all ok. I was directly behind this as it happened and saw the car shoot off to the verge on the right, (think it was a Honda CRV or KIA off roader of some sort). I didn't stop as there was a motorway maintenance vehicle right behind you and assumed i had not particular talent that would help the situation! The woman in the skoda looked fairly shook up as i assume it was the lorry that rear ended her! (no pun intended)
I had wondered what had happened, and the whole way home until this point i kep thinking its a matter of time before i see another accident on the A9 (have seen a good few before).
I was in the black M3 that stopped before the big pile of glass that was left trying to figure out how to get round it!
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yellowbentines
3,451 posts
76 months
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BonzoG said: Scameras on the idiot-proof overtaking stretches, so the morons with a photocopier to sell instead dice with death on the poorly-sighted stretches. Whoever decides on the locations for the most of the scameras on A-roads deserves shooting. I travelled up from the East coast of England to Glasgow this week and took the A696/A68, a great drive until I crossed the border into Scotland where there were cameras on pretty much every decent overtaking stretch. I had two vans in front of me doing 35-40mph with no consideration to the traffic behind (they clearly weren't in a hurry so would it hurt to pull in?!), and as there was two of them I needed a decent stretch to get past both of them, so I end up sitting behind them getting frustrated, then flooring it like a lunatic at the first available opportunity. I used to do the A9 to Inverness when visiting relatives in the Western Isles, it's a horrible road so I now take the long route up via Fort William and Skye and avoid most of the trucks on the other road.
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EcosseVRs
20 posts
19 months
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What annoys me about the A9 is that you'll get people travelling well over the speed limit on the dual sections and then taking insane risks to rejoin the left hand lane when it reverts to single carriageway. But then once on the single carriageway and having ample opportunity to overtake they just sit there blindly the following the car / truck in front and usually leaving no safe gap for anyone else to make progress. Nuts!
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KB_S1
5,937 posts
98 months
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^^
Last time I was on the A9 heading South I saw the opposite.
Guy in a Jag S Type, looked mid 50s. Glasses, knitted jumper, wife sat beside. Dreadful overtake of me on a left sweeper whilst I was sitting back from a Citylink coach.
He then went so close behind it he had to keep moving a full metre over the centre to see past it, prompting several swerves back to avoid oncoming.
I was sitting about 3s back, so could see well beyond. I had to give up a couple of passing opportunities as I was very worried he would pull out as I was passing.
He eventually did crawl past the coach on a bend, with a very close call to get back 'onside'.
About 500m later, DC. I passed coach and caught him within a minute as he was strolling along at 65. About 7mph faster than the coach.
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jshell
4,980 posts
74 months
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Truck drivers send me up the wall on the A9. The last one I called 999 on actually tried to swipe a Saab off the road whilst overtaking. Absolutely deliberate and clear to see. Cops said they would stop him later up the road. Worst one was close to home: My mum and dad, both in their mid-70's driving down to visit family in Glasgow. They're in an X-Trail and doing close to the speed limit, but trying to remain within their old-age limits. My mother was telling me of this truck being so close behimd that all she could see was grill in the rear view mirror. She said that she was so scared that she indicated before 'escaping' into a lay-by on the South bound North of Bruar. She said they felt the car shake from the air-pressure wave of the truck passing so closely. Of course I though this was my mum's usual exageration. Until I saw the f king black line down the rear three-quarter panel where the truck had scraped it's bumper on the X-Trail on the way past!!! They didn't get a number, unfortunately. He really could have killed them. I wish that of a truck driver a horrible death, preferably trapped in a burning cab.
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BorkFactor
4,864 posts
27 months
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I remember seeing a guy in a black Zafira with his family in the car (could see a woman in the passenger seat and 2 kids in the back) cross double solid lines into the oncoming overtaking lane in heavy traffic! One of the most dangerous manoevers I have ever seen in my 3 years on the road, not nice to watch.
Saw the same car parked in a layby a mile or so ahead, so must have scared someone in the car. Can't believe someone would endanger his entire family like that.
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matchmaker
3,254 posts
69 months
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KB_S1 said: ^^
Last time I was on the A9 heading South I saw the opposite.
Guy in a Jag S Type, looked mid 50s. Glasses, knitted jumper, wife sat beside. Dreadful overtake of me on a left sweeper whilst I was sitting back from a Citylink coach.
He then went so close behind it he had to keep moving a full metre over the centre to see past it, prompting several swerves back to avoid oncoming.
I was sitting about 3s back, so could see well beyond. I had to give up a couple of passing opportunities as I was very worried he would pull out as I was passing.
He eventually did crawl past the coach on a bend, with a very close call to get back 'onside'.
About 500m later, DC. I passed coach and caught him within a minute as he was strolling along at 65. About 7mph faster than the coach. That's weird. I experienced almost exactly the same scenario on my last trip south on the A9! A lorry, not a coach, but otherwise almost identical. OP - glad you're OK. And as has been commented, whoever located the Gatsos and decided on the scamera van locations should be taken outside and battered to death with a can of Red Bull. Putting them on long, well sighted straights is a blatant money gathering exercise. It has the square root of f k all to do with safety 
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whirligig
938 posts
64 months
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ViperPict
Original Poster
8,416 posts
106 months
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whirligig said: That is bad. One of them making the mistake that road was duel carriageway there? Easy mistake to make with few other drivers on the road...
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yellowbentines
3,451 posts
76 months
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whirligig said: My folks were caught up in the aftermath this morning heading to Ullapool, and like many took one of the alternative routes up by Loch Ness and due to the increased volume of traffic on those roads casued by the earlier incident were nearly in an accident as two more trucks immediately in front of them and an oncoming coach had a smash just north of Invergarry involving a truck leaving the road - more blockages, more traffic diverted onto even smaller roads incapable of handling the volume safely (coupled with people trying to make up time), it all just leads to more trouble. I just can't understand why a road like the A9 which when named is usally accompanied by the words 'death' or 'killer' has been allowed to remain insufficient to safely carry the type and volume of traffic it does for so many years.
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matchmaker
3,254 posts
69 months
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ViperPict said: whirligig said: That is bad. One of them making the mistake that road was duel carriageway there? Easy mistake to make with few other drivers on the road... Even on the "old" A9, Calvine was an accident blackspot - a location known as the "Black Tank" (after a water tank on the adjacent railway). I'm going up the A9 to Inverness tomorrow 
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GetCarter
16,702 posts
148 months
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matchmaker said: Even on the "old" A9, Calvine was an accident blackspot - a location known as the "Black Tank" (after a water tank on the adjacent railway). I'm going up the A9 to Inverness tomorrow It'll be sunny when you get there 
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