The daughter of two pensioners killed in a horrific crash two years ago has slammed a bid to divert funding from the A9 dualling project into improving the rail network.
Jim Forbes, 73 and his 66-year-old wife Anne were killed near Killiecrankie in 2010.
Last night their daughter Fiona Hutton said attempts to take money from the long- anticipated project were “agonising”.
The Green Party had called for the move in Parliament, stating the cash should be spent on rail upgrades instead.
Ms Hutton said: “I’m shocked but not surprised, because it just seems like with the A9 project, there’s commitment and then it fades away again when the fatalities seem to reduce a bit or there’s not a death on the road for a while.
“We are around 2 years on from my mum and dad being killed and my thoughts are still the same as they were then we still live a life sentence day to day and that is without word of a lie or exaggeration.
“The impact of losing one person, let alone two, on any road but particularly a road which has such a bad history is just devastating.
“The road needs to be dualled sooner rather than later. People have still to this day been killed on that road, people are still going to be killed, especially on the single carriageways.
“It’s not just the road, it’s the drivers but it’s a combination of the layout out of the road and the way that drivers behave on it that I feel is just a bad combination.
“I’ve never travelled on that road, because I’m scared to put myself and my family on it.”
She added the thought of the funding being pulled had left her physically shaking.
“I’m angry for all the victims and the families, not just our own situation,” she said.“Once people die on the road that’s not the end of it there’s the impact.What it costs families you can’t put a price on it.”
The amendment has also outraged MSP Murdo Fraser, who has long campaigned to upgrade the route.
He said: “The people of the Highlands have been let down time and time again on this project and, therefore, we cannot have funds diverted from it.”
A spokesman for the Independent Green group at Holyrood said: “We were not suggesting that money should not be invested to improve safety on the A9, which, of course, is everyone’s priority.
“We remain of the view that upgrades to the Highland main line are necessary and affordable.”