More time for A9

The story and headline are some way from capturing the true scale of our activity on the A9 and the amount of time and effort we are putting in to keeping people safe on the route.

Since the introduction of Police Scotland in April, road policing resources have been significantly restructured to provide more coverage of specialist officers on key trunk routes, including the A9.

We have officers from the Trunk Road Patrol Group based in Inverness, Perth and Stirling. We now have more specialist road patrol officers in the north of the country than were available under previous policing arrangements.

In July we implemented a new action plan for the A9.

During that month I deployed an additional 565 hours’ worth of resources from trunk roads units across the country to the route, reflecting the seriousness with which we acknowledge the issues connected to the safety of road users.

This was in addition to the dedicated patrolling already provided by road policing units in Perth and Inverness.

Local policing officers also regularly use the route along its entire length and provide further presence to reassure, deter and enforce where needed.

In short, Police Scotland recognises the unique challenges of the A9 and is taking significant steps, working with partners, to influence road-user behaviour and reduce the number of people injured or killed on the route.

(Supt) Iain Murray

Head of Road Policing

Police Scotland