More A9 fatalities

[matchmaker]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-is...

Likes like a nasty one Horrible road - I've had 2 near misses on it

Thoughts with the families........................

[SD1992]

That looks horrible!!

I drove up that road two days ago, and I think the problem is not with the road, more the people that use it. I saw some absolutely insane overtakes, one was a bus overtaking a car doing 50 (in one of the single carriageway 60 mph bits) on a blind corner, with a car coming the other way! The other guy had to stop dead in the middle of the road!

My thoughts are with the families also...

[Col 666]

I am on the A9 a lot, I used to live in Pitlochry so was on it nearly everyday. I see the problems being -

Frustration due to slow moving traffic and not enough overtaking places, so people take risks.
Tourists that havent a clue where they are going and not paying attention.
The constant change from single to dual carriagway and those ridiculous 3 lane bits for overtaking.
Lots of farm entrances, juntions etc.

The only way they can sort this is by dualling it the whole way which will cost a fortune but save a lot of lives, I cant see it ever happening the government would rather upgrade roads down south or spend it on bloody tram's!

[Penny-lope]

Someone who worked in my schools kitchen just lost her ex (and kids father) in a car accident. Not sure if it was this one or not

[bigwheel]

I was Southbound and arrived at the scene a few minutes after it must have happened, almost front of the ensuing queue. Single carriageway section close to Lynchat. Road totally blocked. Straight bit of road.

A lot of smoke from both vehicles. The car was next to the Southbound armco barrier and the van was facing it across the carriageway.

Considering the location, the emergency services were on-scene very promptly.

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=lynchat+sc...

Edited by bigwheel on Tuesday 5th July 17:16

[SD1992]

Col 666 said:

The only way they can sort this is by dualling it the whole way which will cost a fortune but save a lot of lives, I cant see it ever happening the government would rather upgrade roads down south or spend it on bloody tram's!

I heard from someone that the money they have spent on the bloody trams would have been enough to dual the whole thing twice over!

[Spitfire2]

SD1992 said:

I saw some absolutely insane overtakes

This is the stand out feature of the A9 every time I drive it.

The number of times I find myself spotting a bad overtake about to happen on the A9 is crazy - often taking my foot off the throttle when I see oncoming overtakers heading into near miss territory (usually the car in front of me pressing on regardless - no doubt flashing lights and making it as scary as possible for the overtaker).

I wonder how many of the head ons on the A9 are caused by these circumstances - where one driver starts a bad overtake in one direction and the oncoming driver decides to give him a scare.... too many I expect.

[aspen]

I don't drive the A9 regularly but anytime I drive it I find the standard of driving from others is shocking.

I drove the entire length of it southbound at the end of May and saw quite a few examples of awful driving. I was in a group 3 cars travelling together. A car overtook the rear car in our group in what looked like an ok manouevre, then when we next hit dual carriageway the 2nd car in the group indicated and pulled out to the right to overtake a slower moving car, whilst he was still alongside the car this nutter starts flashing at him to get out of the way!

Further on I was lead car behind a French motorhome. Motorhome driver spotted a queue forming (hadn't been any overtaking opportunites) and pulled in at a layby, obviously he had to brake to do so, so I slowed down as we were approaching a bend with no visibilty of what was coming. Nutter lady then pulls straight out and overtakes 2 cars and the motorhome. Fortunately nothing was coming the other way. We caught up with her almost immediately sitting doing 2 mph over the speed limit! Driving like an idiot and apparently not even in any rush. Beggars belief.

[s4avant]

Poor overtaking is undoubtably the cause of much of the carnage on the A9 and stems in most cases, from the frustration of trailing in long queues behind slower moving traffic.
If these slower movers used their mirrors and pulled in regularly to let faster moving traffic past, the situation would be much improved.
This suggestion is clearly laid out in the Highway Code and perhaps needs some Police action to reinforce the message.

[matchmaker]

aspen said:

Further on I was lead car behind a French motorhome. Motorhome driver spotted a queue forming (hadn't been any overtaking opportunites) and pulled in at a layby, obviously he had to brake to do so, so I slowed down as we were approaching a bend with no visibilty of what was coming. Nutter lady then pulls straight out and overtakes 2 cars and the motorhome. Fortunately nothing was coming the other way. We caught up with her almost immediately sitting doing 2 mph over the speed limit! Driving like an idiot and apparently not even in any rush. Beggars belief.

I experienced similar last year. Heading south near Pitlochry heading south at night - December so it was dark. I was lead vehicle in a queue of about 5 cars behind a slow moving council lorry who was - I think - inspecting the road - he had his yellow beacons on.

We were doing about 30 mph and approaching a blind left hand bend when an old gent/cupid old stunt in a Lexus overtook us all at about 50mph.

This being the A9 he came face to face with a northbound car in the middle of the bend. The oncoming car swerved and Lexus man just made it in in front of the lorry

The council lorry turned off at the next junction and two minutes later on the next stretch of dual carriageway I cruised past Mr Lexus at 70mph. He was, of course, still doing 50mph