By Professor John Robertson
In December 2023, Douglas Ross accused the SNP of showing contempt for communities ‘reliant on the A9.’
Conservative Home wrote:
In a recent debate at Holyrood on the £3 billion dualling programme, Murdo expressed frustration that, with the exception of Fergus Ewing, there were no SNP MSPs from the areas that are impacted who voted to treat the long-delayed dualling project as an urgent priority.’
A recent Freedom of Information request, probably by the Scottish Conservatives, seeking details of the number of deaths on the A9 in 2023 will have sorely disappointed them and is notably not making the headlines anywhere: https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202400397957/+
After a very bad year in 2022, as tourists flocked back, when 13 died compared with the 2011-2022 average of 5.4, in 2023, 3 died and 2 of them on the already dualled sections.
In addition to the above good news on Scotland’s supposed ‘killer road’, two much ignored facts:
First:
As of July 2023, 335 people had been killed on the Perth-to-Inverness stretch of the road since 1979 (an average of 7.6 death per year), 59 of which occurred between 2011 and 2022 (an average of 5.4 deaths per year).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killer_A9#:~:text=As%20of%20July%202023%2C%20335,bring%20attention%20to%20the%20statistics.
With only 3 in 2023, the trend, regardless of supposed ‘SNP betrayal’ is clear.
Second:
Compared to the rest of Britain, however, Scotland is the safest area overall, with 1.32 road accidents per 1,000 of the population, compared with 1.51 in Wales and 2.05 in England.
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/homenews/23424294.argyll-bute-scotlands-deadliest-roads/
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Oh surely not! What an absolute disappointment for Scottish unionists of all colours who actively promote the ‘Scotland is Shite’ logo.
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Indeed….and #SNPBAD as well…..
NMRN
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Was Murd not against the speed cameras as well,a friend of mine who is a regular user of the A9 as part of his job says it is seldom mentioned the driver error along with speeding that causes these accidents,as I have mentioned before if Lord Jack had not sent all that money back the A9 and others could have been done long ago.
What about this one.
UK ‘grants Canary Wharf £16k per head extra funding than Scotland’
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The police have repeated that statement - speed and human error cause most accidents - not the road.
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Fewer deaths on the A9 ? Murdo Fraser now complaining that Funeral Directors losing business .
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Is that MURDO STILL CLAIMING BENEFITS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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By restricting the FOI to a single year, the person making the request was, probably, seeking to misuse it to bolster a spurious case. You have pointed out that the information does not allow for any meaningful comparison to be drawn regarding dualled and nondualled sections of the A9. Asking for accidents per kilometre would have been more useful, but only in a multi year context.
Alasdair Macdonald
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Keltigirl, used to smell something ‘fishy’ about the all the unionist bad mouthing all things Scottish. You have reformed ‘💩’ my thinking 🧐.
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