Lives torn apart by fatal crashes on the A9, Scotland’s longest road

A dream trip to Scotland ended with a tragedy for Chris Strong’s family.

His wife Katie traveled from the United States to the highlands with his brother and mothers to visit their favorite TV show Outlander.

But they never came home. All three were killed in August 2022 in an accident in a bad A9.

Their death was another statistic in the terrible history of the longest body of Scotland.

In the last 10 years, a total of 48 people died in 113 miles between Inverness and Perth.

The road regularly changes from single highway. Drivers can usually be seen in excessive speeds to cross the lines of vehicles moving more slowly, and at some intersections, cars should return to the right in traffic that comes to another direction.

In order to double the remaining ways, the work had to be completed by 2025 at the beginning – but this deadline fell to 2035 until ten years.

Chris Strong, living in Chicago with three daughters of the couple, BBC Alba’s Eignon Program The painful impact of deaths.

His wife, Katie, said that “the glue that holds all the big elements of our families together.”

He said, “He was beautiful and he was the hardest working person I met.”

“He never sat down and was very ambitious and always learning, and always at school. He was always interested in people.”

Chris, a photographer, says Katie and her family keep their memories alive.

“We’re trying to talk a lot about him. I still feel like there’s still in our house.”

Katie was 46 years old when she visited Scotland with her 45-year-old brother Jared Bastion and their mother Mary-Lou Mauch.

They were all Outlander fans, while they suffered from dementia, they watched them together while their deceased father was looking at David.

During their trips, they visited Culloen Battlefield near Inverness, one of the locations of the show.

They were in a single main road section of A9 in the south of Aviemore in their cars It was confused with a truck collision.

Mary-Lou and Jared died at the scene. Katie died in the hospital four days later.

The truck driver was not hurt.

Chris said: “I don’t know why.

“He was going to close the right -hand from the A9 and turned to a truck.”

Chris took the next plane to Scotland after learning the accident.

Katie was being treated in a hospital in Dundee.

Chris said: “I was able to reach there to see him. He was in a ventilator.

“Maybe I have to spend 24 hours with him.

“Then they performed tests and determined that they wouldn’t come back.”

Others experienced tragedy from the first hand in A9.

Ronnie Weir, who lives just a few meters away from the road in Perthshire, Dowlyly, was involved in an accident in April 2017.

When a car came on the wrong side of the road, he was going home from Pitlochry. They hit the head.

The driver of the other vehicle underwent bleeding and died in the steering wheel before the accident.

Ronnie suffered from leg injury, said the accident felt the effects every day.

“The trauma caused by a accident is terrible. Sometimes it’s hard to talk about it,” he said.

Truck driver Elaine Mackenzie is a regular user of the road and says that he prayed to A9 every time he sets off.

He said: “For myself, not for my truck, but also for everyone who is with me – for everyone in A9, especially for trucks.”

Elaine believed there were many factors behind accidents in A9.

Some drivers do not understand the road signs, others are trying to pass the truck in dangerous places, he said.

“The road would be very different if the two to Perth.”

“Because then the cars can pass me if they want, and you don’t have to worry.”

According to the data of the Scottish government that Eòrpa received through freedom of knowledge, a total of 48 people died between 2014-2024 after the collisions in A9 between Inverness and Perth.

More than 80% of those who lost their lives were in the non -double main road.

For the same 10 years, 558 people participated in collisions. More than 80% of them were in non -dualled sections.

In 2007, SNP made a commitment to double A9 from Inverness to Perth, and in 2011, the Scotish government set the 2025 target date.

However, in February 2023, the ministers admitted that it was until then to finish £ 3 billion. “Unattainable”.

Ten months later, the government said it was 10 years late to complete the business Until 2035.

Transportation Secretary Mairi McALLAN said that a new improvement program is “accessible” and “will not allow”.

In the last decade, two parts of the road have been raised in a total of 11 miles (18 km) – but 77 miles of the route should still be divided into two.

Laura Hansler, the A9 double action group campaignist Laura Hansler, who lives near Cairngorms, said he knew that the road building project was complex.

But he added: “When there is a delay … Basically, you will cause someone else and another family to lose their loved ones on this path.”

Transportation Secretary Fiona Hyslop said he understood that the road had frustrations around the duo.

“A9 or other roads in Scotland, a tragedy in itself,” he said.

“Something that I take is extremely serious.”

Authority said the government did not only expect dullness to take place and that the A9 has invested 5 million pounds in temporary, shorter road safety problems.

“Dualling on its own will help the road safety, and that’s one of the reasons we’ve entered him.” He said.

HYSLOP said that the conditions beyond the control of the Scottish government affect the project, including the withdrawal of Britain from the European Union – and Covid Pandemia.

But he added: “We have a plan, we meet our milestones.”