The SNP conference in Perth has heard calls for an end to the carnage on Scotland’s most notorious road.
In the last six years, almost 80 people have been killed on the A9, sparking an urgent call for the road between Perth and Inverness to be dualled.
Speaking candidly at the opening conference event on Thursday, Perth and North Perthshire MP Pete Wishart revealed that the shocking death toll means he now lives in fear of receiving a call from Tayside Police informing him of an accident on the route.
”This is a chaotic and dangerous road,” he said. ”It needs to be fully dualled between Perth and Inverness and this SNP Government is delivering that.
”After all this time, after all these deaths, after all this carnage, it’s going to be done. I don’t want to get any calls about there being another fatality I want to be told that this road is safe.
”This is our government in action getting things done, getting things safe and ensuring this carnage ends.”
The Scottish Government announced in June that a £3 billion programme of works to dual the A9 from Inverness to Perth would start two years early in 2015.
Around £50 million has already been spent on improvements, with the project expected to be completed by 2025.
Mr Wishart called for patience, saying the upgrade would take time.
He added: ”It is not going to be an easy matter. It is going to be one of the biggest roads infrastructure projects of our time and it is important that we get this right.”
Former local councillor Alasdair Wyllie also took to the stage to back Mr Wishart’s resolution, although he claimed that ”killer drivers” were as much to blame as the ”killer road”.
He recounted figures from a recent joint crackdown between Tayside Police and Northern Constabulary. Over 10 days, almost 700 motorists were caught speeding, while a further 35 were charged with mobile phone offences and several with driving dangerously.