Large parts of the A9 in Perthshire were brought to a standstill as traffic chaos reigned on Friday.
Two serious accidents one of which claimed two lives and major roadworks, combined with thousands of people heading to the RockNess music festival, left the main route between the north and south of Scotland severely disrupted.
At Ralia, near Newtonmore, the driver and passenger of a van died when they were involved in a collision with a bus heading to the festival.
The crash happened just before 3.45pm and left the driver of the service bus from Edinburgh trapped.
He sustained serious injuries and was taken to hospital by air ambulance, while four of his 37 passengers also received treatment for their injuries.
The A9 remained closed for several hours to allow a full accident investigation and diversions were put in place.
Just minutes later a four-vehicle collision south of Perth forced the closure of the main route from Glasgow to the north.
One person was rushed to Ninewells Hospital in Dundee following the smash, which occurred near Auchterarder shortly before 4pm.
Emergency services rushed to the scene, among them fire appliances from Auchterarder and Perth.
All the people involved in the accident were able to get out of their vehicles before they arrived.
Tayside Fire and Rescue Service remained on site to help clear the road and the A9 southbound was closed for some time for investigation work.
Traffic was diverted through Auchterarder, causing significant delays.
Vehicles were described as being ”nose to tail” on the southbound carriageway as rush-hour kicked in.
Throughout the day, motorists making their way between Perth and Inverness had been experiencing difficulties on the A9, even before the accidents caused further problems.
Traffic queued on the route for over an hour in either direction as a result of major roadworks near Dunkeld and the increased volume of vehicles heading to RockNess.
Traffic was brought to a crawl with lengthy tailbacks building up. These took much of the day to clear. The problems were not confined to the A9 as hundreds of vehicles attempted to circumnavigate the snarl-up by heading through Dunkeld itself, causing concerns for local people.
”Lorries have been taking detours through Dunkeld using the old A9,” said Nan Johnston, chairperson of Dunkeld and Birnam Community Council. ”At times you couldn’t even cross the road. The safety of pedestrians is at risk.
”This is the start of the roadworks. I have contacted Transport Scotland as we can’t handle this, it’s chaos. They are aware there is an issue. It affects business, but I am concerned for residents.
”We got a 20mph limit in Dunkeld but because of the narrowness of the pavements lorries are bumping up on to the pavement on the bridge.
”I am concerned for local residents and businesses with this amount of traffic coming through the village. People can’t get to the shops easily and it hits tourist trade.”
The roadworks are due to continue for a month.
While the RockNess traffic exacerbated the situation, additional projects are already placing strain on the local roads network.
”It is not easy to get in at the Inver road. We have extra traffic connected with the Beauly to Denny line and the Calliacher windfarm,” Ms Johnston said. ”It is all a bit of a mess.”
Friday’s accidents came a week after an accident on the A9 claimed the lives of two lorry drivers. That tragedy has already led to renewed calls for urgent action to upgrade the key Perth to Inverness section to full dual carriageway status.