Highland MP Jamie Stone comments on rising road deaths

Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross MP Jamie Stone has today called on the Scottish Government to tackle dangerous trunk roads and speed up efforts to dual the A9 as new figures showed that the number of people killed on the roads reached its highest level for seven years last year.

A total of 173 people were killed in road collisions in Scotland in 2022 – 32 more than the previous year. This includes at least 17 on the A9.

Mr Stone said:

“This is a huge number of families to have lost loved ones on Scotland’s roads.

“I don’t want to see anyone more people left without partners, children or grandparents because the Scottish Government continues to move too slowly to tackle dangerous trunk roads.

“The SNP came into government in 2007 pledging urgent action to improve trunk roads to the North and North East but next to nothing has happened. The fact that the A9 dualling will not be completed until beyond the next Scottish Parliament election in 2026 speaks to the snail’s pace with which successive ministers have acted.

“Across the Highlands we have become all too used to a steady drumbeat of road deaths. As a matter of essential public safety, our roads need to be upgraded in full and fast.”