The heartbroken daughters of a retired couple killed on Scotland’s most dangerous road made a moving plea for it to be made a dual carriageway
Jim Forbes (73) and his 66-year-old wife Anne were fatally injured in a tragic accident on the A9 near Pitlochry in October.
Yesterday, the Denny couple’s loved ones travelled to the Scottish Parliament to listen to MSPs debate the road’s atrocious safety record.
Their daughters, Fiona Hutton (38) and May Tennant (40), revealed Mr Forbes had been a long-time campaigner for upgrading the road and had expressed concerns over its safety just days before his death.
They demanded the Scottish Government listened to calls from relatives of those killed and expressed “frustration, anger and annoyance” over the lack of action to improve the road’s safety record.
“We are aghast that the statistics are showing that so many people have lost their lives on the A9 but as a nation we have just accepted that the A9 is a dangerous road,” said Fiona, who lives in Polmont, Stirlingshire.
Mr Forbes, a retired transport co-ordinator, had driven HGVs and was familiar with the road.
“He was always really careful on the road and he said many, many times about how dangerous the road is,” Fiona said. “He was always telling us to be careful every time we used it and call him whenever we reached where we were going.
“Days before the crash he was talking about how dangerous it was.”
The debate was secured by Tory Mid Scotland and Fife MSP Murdo Fraser, who has led a campaign to have the road made a dual carriageway.Helping the campaignFiona said the family had learned of Mr Fraser’s campaign following the accident and wanted to help out.
“We would never have wanted to publicise our grief in this way, but we thought this is what we had to do,” she said.
Making a direct appeal to First Minister Alex Salmond, Fiona added, “Listen to how it feels for us. We are not just another statistic.”
Speaking during the debate Mr Fraser said, “We must remember that behind these statistics there are many families and friends who have lost loved ones and many communities devastated.
“Every accident is a human tragedy and tonight we are joined in the gallery by families and friends who have lost loved ones on the A9.”
However, the SNP pointed out that government money diverted to the Edinburgh trams at the insistence of other parties could have been used to improve the A9.
Transport minister Keith Brown said, “It would clearly never have been possible to design, authorise, procure and complete major dualling of the A9 in the lifetime of this parliament. However, we have made significant and necessary progress.”
The other victim of the crash which killed Mr and Mrs Forbes was John Potter, a biology teacher at Gordonstoun School in Moray.
Mr and Mrs Forbes’ other daughter, Kathleen Wearden, was also at the Scottish Parliament yesterday. They also have a son, also Jim, in London. They were also grandparents to five young children
Relatives of other victims of the A9 also watched the proceedings from the public gallery.
The A9 has the highest fatality rate of any road in the country.
It witnesses on average more than 200 road accidents a year and last year 13 people were killed on the stretch between Perth and Inverness.