HAULIERS HAVE welcomed news that the speed limit for HGVs could be raised on the A9.
Transport minister Keith Brown said he was “looking seriously” at whether the maximum speed for HGVs on the road branded Scotland’s deadliest could be increased.
The Road Haulage Association (RHA) has previously called for the “archaic 40mph HGV speed limit on single carriageway roads” to be changed to 50mph.
RHA Scotland and Northern Ireland director Phil Flanders said: “We’ve been pushing for this for years and at long last we may be getting somewhere.
“Through Transport Scotland we have been trying to progress this for a number of years.
“It should make life a lot easier for a lot of people and reduce accidents because it will make road safety better.
“I don’t think we’ve got any choice but to keep lobbying for this because the longer it stays like this, the worse it will get.”
The A9 runs from Perth to Inverness and has a number of stretches of single carriageway, although the Scottish Government has put forward plans to upgrade it fully to dual carriageway by 2025.
Tory MSP Murdo Fraser has previously said there are an average of 200 accidents a year on the road and has branded its death rate the highest in Scotland.
The Mid Scotland and Fife MSP pressed the transport minister on the speed limit in Holyrood.
He told Mr Brown: “There is an issue on single-carriageway sections of the A9 with slow-moving HGVs behind which long lines of vehicles build up, leading to driver frustration and in some cases that causes accidents.
“Will the minister look seriously at this issue of increasing the speed limits for HGVs on the A9, which could help reduce driver frustration and improve the accident rate on Scotland’s deadliest road?”
Mr Brown told him: “I am looking seriously at the issue.”
He stressed safety had to be the “primary consideration” when looking at what speed HGVs should be permitted to drive at.
Mr Brown said: “Safety has to be the first consideration and the only piece of predictive evidence we have so far suggests there might be a marginal disbenefit in safety terms.
“However, that is if it is carried out on its own, so there might be other things that could be done to ameliorate the effect of that.”
arichardson@thecourier.co.uk