Life and Death on the A9

The A9, the spine of Scotland,

the gateway to the Highlands,

the road we love to hate.

It's bumpy, it's lumpy, it's just, it's done.

It's a road that has acquired legendary status

in the Scottish psyche.

'There has been an accident on the A9.'

'The A9 remains closed southbound.'

'An overturned lorry is causing delays.'

With the last major upgrade completed 30 years ago,

this road is now reaching its capacity...

-This is nose to tail now.

-Snaking off into the distance.

Folks, can I ask you to go back onto your own side of the road?

..with a deadly reputation.

The first thing we're going to do this morning, is remember

and remember actually the danger that your excitement brings.

'It's moving well on the southbound A9 Kessock Bridge as you

'head towards Inverness. Building up towards the south...'

For one year, our cameras followed the men

and women who keep Scotland's most notorious road running.

You don't ever say quiet.

You feel like you cause it.

The people who travel it on a daily basis...

Why is that car overtaking a car there, overtaking a truck?

What is going through their head that is making them do that?

-..the communities who rely on the road...

-It is an absolute lifeline.

Absolute lifeline to the area.

In the winter, if the roads are blocked we're cut off.

..and those driving it for the very first time.

Somehow I don't expect to see cars zooming by

to squeeze in on the right, you know?

Killer road, I wouldn't class it as that.

It's the people that travel it

that ultimately can cause the problems one way or another.

At 273 miles, the A9 is Scotland's longest road

stretching from Scrabster Harbour

in the north to the Forth Valley in the South.

It's Scotland's most iconic road,

running like a spine down the centre of the country.

Following an extensive upgrade in the 1970s...

I think that this road could be quite unique in Scotland.

..the A9 emerged as a crucial artery carrying

increasing numbers of goods and people to and from the Highlands.

Today, 36,000 vehicles travel the road daily.

Cars carrying commuters,

motorbikes and caravans carrying day trippers and tourists...

..and HGVs transporting goods worth just over £1 billion

to the Scottish economy.

In Scrabster Harbour, at the road's most northerly point,

haulage company D Steven & Son has a fleet of 35 HGVs.

The A9 is the artery for the whole thing coming down the way -

be it fishing, be it whisky, be it timber.

Whatever it is, it is all coming down this one road.

There is just one way in and one way out, that's it.

Alex Stewart has been driving on the A9 for the past 39 years.

We have a great name now for all the foodstuffs, you know, the world over.

Scottish beef, Aberdeen Angus, the shellfish thing,

everything has got a great name. But it has still got to be taken by road.

The old cow, she's not walking from Caithness to Glasgow Airport,

she's got to be taken down there.

You know?

Today, Alex is transporting salmon south on the A9,

travelling the full length of the road, bound for Glasgow airport.

At any one time, there are at least five Police Scotland road traffic units

out on patrol travelling north and south, keeping

an eye on the A9 in their efforts to keep road users safe.

PC Fraser Cameron has been patrolling the road for the past five years.

Your friends told you to go quickly, yes? Not 90mph quickly.

You are not obliged to say anything

but anything you do say will be noted and may be used in evidence.

I have been here for about an hour.

-BLEEP

-scumbag.

-Please don't swear at me.

If you obstruct me, you are getting the jail.

I think a lot of people that use the A9 on a daily basis

probably become used to it.

The scenery on it,

they probably don't realise what is in front of them.

They just want to get from A to B.

Having an office like this, absolutely fantastic.

Today, Fraser and his colleague, PC Morgan McDonald,

are patrolling the dual carriageway section of the road south of Perth.

We are en route to what has come out as a one-vehicle

road traffic accident on the A9 round about Gleneagles.

The car is believed to have overturned and there are four occupants who I believe are injured.

On this dualled section of the road,

there are 52 crossing-over points

allowing local access to villages, farms and railway stations.

We'll see if we can sweep it up and get an outside lane going.

Of the 122 accidents on the A9 last year,

27 involved this dual carriageway stretch south of Perth.

Can you just go over to the side, folks?

-Did you see what happened?

-No, no, no.

-It happened ages before we arrived.

-No problem. Just go into the side, thank you.

'There has been an accident on the A9.

'A car is on its roof on the southbound carriageway

'which has now been closed at Gleneagles Station.

'There are three-mile tailbacks there.'

Update regarding this RTC at Gleneagles.

We have a 39-year-old female,

it looks like she has got a fractured ankle.

There is a 37-year-old male who has chest injuries

and is suffering breathing problems at the moment.

All we are doing is going to protect the road at the other side

with the car that is on the central reserve.

-The damage's square on the back.

-Yes.

It is mainly front end damage there.

The A9's reputation as Scotland's most dangerous road

is linked to a number of factors -

confusing road layout,

long stretches of single carriageway

and motorists stuck behind high volumes

of slower moving heavy goods vehicles

can lead to driver frustration and dangerous overtakes.

In his 39 years of driving,

truck driver Alex has seen his fair share of accidents.

For some reason, the accidents seem to be down towards Gleneagles

and Blackford and places like that which you would

think were perfectly safe roads.

But there does seem to be issues,

but the issues often relate to these junctions that cross over.

At the end of the day, you can pinpoint one thing about it

and say

that's what's happened there, but, you know, it's just

a combination of traffic, people, things, situation, everything.

There are very few months that someone does not lose

a life on this road. Yeah.

This time, luckily,

the collision has not resulted in any loss of life.

With seven fatalities in the last year, it is

an all too common occurrence for Morgan and Fraser.

Unfortunately, I have attended a number of fatalities

on the A9 now and I would rather we got by

without having to attend these things,

but unfortunately they do happen.

The only thing that really goes through my head is that

I hope it is not a fatality.

I always just hope that it is no more than a ten-a-penny bump.

In the summer, 40% more traffic travels

up and down the A9 every day.

One of the events that puts pressure on the road,

during this busy time, is RockNess -

an annual music festival held at Dores on the banks of Loch Ness.

The good weather is bringing bumper crowds

and with 35,000 people expected to attend,

this is one of the busiest weekends of the year for the A9.

Good morning, problems southbound if you're heading from Stirling

towards the M73, an overturned lorry causing delays.

At the Traffic Scotland National Control Centre,

shift leader Nick and his team are using over 400 CCTV cameras

to monitor Scotland's trunk roads.

The Kessock bridge is currently showing 15 minutes' delay southbound,

so we're just updating the signs to reflect that.

And with double the usual volume of traffic expected to use

the A9 this weekend, everyone is on high alert.

As it gets near to the peak,

we'll get the normal traffic going home from work,

which will obviously include people that are going

to RockNess as well,

so we may get some pretty long delays later on.

Kincardine and Clackmannanshire bridges are congestion free,

likewise in Falkirk.

Over 30,000 people are expected at RockNess,

so obviously they won't all travel today, but, yeah,

the majority of congestion we would expect,

from past years, to be this afternoon.

Hello, 520 Sierra.

We've not had any issues this morning,

but again, that makes me nervous, to say that.

You don't ever say quiet. As soon as you say quiet, that's when...

Notice I don't say it!

It's weird. It does, it's just...

You feel like you cause it.

At Buchanan Bus Station in Glasgow,

hundreds of festivalgoers are preparing for the journey north.

Over 100 buses are expected to make their way

to RockNess from the central belt,

and for most party has started early.

-A can of Red Stripe, Jamaica lager beer.

-Cheers.

Another big thing on the A9 now is the buses.

They're under the same constraints as us, so a wee bit more speed.

The bus drivers have got the same issues as what truck drivers have.

Worse for them in a lot of ways,

because they've got 58 or 48 absolute expert drivers

sitting behind them, who know everything about bus driving.

On the byway, on the A9!

What more could you want?

Father and son, Colin and Andrew, are also travelling north on the A9.

First speed camera. It wasnae me, boss.

Seasoned festivalgoer Colin has taken his trusty camper van,

Oona, to RockNess, for the past five years.

69 miles an hour.

Well done, Oona. Woo hoo!

A veteran of the A9,

Colin is keen to educate Andrew in the ways of the road.

Road's got a bad reputation.

A road has never caused an accident in its life.

It's the people that are on it. There's a big lorry in front of us.

There's six cars behind him.

One of them will risk it, try to overtake that lorry.

He'll get impatient.

You get there eventually...

Don't we, darling?

You'll find driver impatience wherever you travel,

especially when you start to get into long lines of queues.

Going from Perth to Inverness,

if they drive in the fashion of trying to squeeze by vehicles

in front or getting overtakes in where it's not really suitable,

what are they saving - 10 minutes, 15 minutes over a long journey, if that?

It just puts folks' stress levels up, driving like that.

This gentleman, he's flashing his lights, coming towards us.

That tells us there's a police car in the corner with his speed camera.

The boy that flashed his lights,

he can get arrested for it.

Yeah.

I've been told it was only like three hours or something.

I thought it'd be quite quick, but it's arduous now. It's painful.

Not going to lie.

-Kessock delays. Is there any at the moment?

-No.

-No?

When RockNess is on, it can be quite tense.

If anything happens between three and six,

especially on the A9,

then yeah, it can be very tense.

It's just starting to look slow.

The combination of that Kessock traffic

-and people going to RockNess as well.

-Yep.

The top two middle cameras are the A9.

The first one here on the left is the A9 at Kingussie.

You can see that's not looking too bad at all just now.

Not going to stay quiet but you can see that.

Just kind of fairly near to where the incident was last year, actually.

-NEWSREADER:

-Police say that a bus bound for the RockNess Festival

collided with a van around 3.30 this afternoon.

And it was towards the end of the day, actually,

around about four o'clock. Two fatalities in that one.

So obviously that means that the road is going to be closed

for quite some time.

I think from memory it was several hours.

I can't remember if it actually opened that night. I think it did.

But it's obviously a challenge.

We're now within a couple of miles.

Yo, yo, yo!

SHE CHEERS

Well, that's us, bro.

-See you later on, mate.

-Good journey.

If there isn't any incidents,

then we'd hope that everybody is at the festival by five.

When there's a big event and we've dealt with it

and we've had no problems,

then that feels good,

that you've done your job and everybody's safe.

RockNess marks the beginning of a busy summer for the road.

Record temperatures across the country bring

up to 15,000 more vehicles every day.

With the marked increase in traffic, there's rarely a moment's rest

for Fraser and the rest of the road traffic patrol team.

There's a car coming up behind us.

You wouldn't mind to check it, would you, please?

-Two young lads. Just a thought.

-Just coming past us?

-Aye.

See if it is, who it is that's driving it.

The car behind, there's two young lads in it.

I just want to check out that

it's the person that's on the insurance,

or the registered keeper that's driving the car.

-Is it your car, is it?

-It is.

-Where are you heading to?

-Up to near Elgin.

-What's your name?

-It's Callum.

OK, Callum, we're just doing routine checks up and down the road today.

Look at this. When your tyre gets worn that much,

the possibility that tyre fails on you,

because you write down into the carcass of the tyre, OK?

It needs to be changed,

but I need to have a word with you today also regarding this, right?

Callum's day is about to get a lot worse, as the control room

gives Fraser some information

which prompts him to ask further questions.

Anything you shouldn't have, Callum?

-Smoke a bit of weed, anything like that? Eh...

-At nights and stuff.

-Right. Sure you've nothing on you? Nothing in the car?

-No.

-You'll no mind us having a wee look, then? No?

-No.

-That's good.

How you doing? Is it Nathan, is it?

Yeah. Anything on you you shouldn't have? No?

-Do you smoke much of it?

-Aye.

-Aye?

And you've nothing on you at all?

Is that what you buy it in, bags like that? Huh? Aye.

You can see where I'm coming from. You told me you smoke it quite a bit,

so I'm surprised you haven't got some on you.

It would save me a lot of hassle going through all these bags

if you have. Eh? You don't?

You've got all the gear, man.

-Whose is this bag? This yours, Callum?

-Aye.

Anything in it shouldn't be in it? Hey? No?

-What's that?

-Cannabis.

-Whose is it?

-It's mine.

-Right, OK.

We'll go back, we'll have a wee seat in the car.

-Anything else in there, mate, save me some time?

-Aye.

-What else is in that?

-Some more.

-Some more of that? OK, where abouts?

In the bag. In this day and age...

-At the end of the day, we don't make the rules.

-I know.

It's illegal to have it.

With an average journey time of just over three hours from Inverness

to the central belt,

the A9 provides the quickest and most direct route

to and from the Highlands for all sorts of traffic.

But it wasn't always like this.

The old A9 was a narrow, twisty road

linking Perthshire and Highland villages,

where the average journey time often exceeded nine hours.

The much-needed upgrade in the '70s took 10 years to complete.

It involved impressive feats of engineering,

averting the River Tay just north of Dunkeld,

bypassing 18 towns and villages and building 12 bridges.

The improvements brought a quicker road which opened up

the Highlands for tourists from the UK and beyond.

30 years on, the tourist industry in the Highlands

is worth £548 million,

and the road is reaching its capacity once again.

This is nose to tail now.

-Just sneaking off into the distance.

-Mm-hm.

A lot of these people here will be going home or it will be, yeah,

visitors, tourists, to the area that have packed up

and they're moving on somewhere else.

It's not unexpected.

This is what you see and you can end up with maybe a couple of miles

or more of just traffic trundling along like this.

In a campsite in Inverness, two well travelled tourists are preparing

to make their maiden journey southbound on the A9.

-I'm Les.

-And I'm Patty Sontag.

We live in Illinois, the centre of the country.

We live in a very rural community, but we love rural.

We love the kind of countryside that we've seen in Scotland so far.

So this makes it very nice.

We're getting to the point where we're thinking bucket list,

and this is a place we really wanted to come before we were

not able to travel any longer,

so we're excited about it.

It's just beautiful country.

But you do have to pay attention to the roads,

because wrong side driving, and narrow.

-For us, the wrong side.

-Yeah, yeah!

I still don't know what that sign means.

Well, I think it means what we thought it meant originally.

It's a speed camera, honey, rather than a...

You know, "Here's a nice view," kind of camera.

When there's tourists here in the summertime,

they're absolutely mesmerised by the countryside.

-Oh, isn't that impressive?

-Yeah.

-Look at that valley.

"Look at that view there. Look at that hills."

They'll tend to slow down, speed up, slow down, speed up,

maybe take a wee wander.

-How fast are you driving?

-Well, faster than I realised.

-Too fast.

You've got to watch them. You've really got to watch them.

That's the second time I've seen someone with...

What's Arnold Clark?

-I have no idea.

-Who is Arnold Clark?

-I have no idea.

A politician running for office?

One business that's benefited from the increase in tourist traffic

is The House of Bruar.

Robert Day is the general manager.

He does a walk-round every morning.

I'm walking around, really, just checking the shop floor,

making sure everything looks in place.

Hopefully, I get a good impression

and that'll be what I want the customers to get.

The business was founded 20 years ago

by owners Mark and Linda Birkbeck.

And everybody scatters.

The 11-acre site has now grown to house a 10,000 square foot

country living hall,

and the largest cashmere department in Britain.

This is the main hall.

Everything from evening items to jeans, blouses,

and, I guess, fashion wear,

as opposed to country wear.

An estimated 1.2 million visitors

stop by The House of Bruar every year.

We will polish the brass every day,

much like a top hotel would do.

The food hall, which is very much the backbone of the business.

It's the one thing that people will always remember,

coming in here, have a lovely nice steak pie.

People don't have to come in and use the restaurant.

We're quite happy with that. It's about coming out, relaxing.

We're very humbled by the fact

that people will travel for long distance to come and visit us.

As the business has grown, so has its customer base.

Managing director Patrick Birkbeck is overseeing the photo shoot

for the mail order catalogue.

Right hand...

The A9 brings countless numbers of sportsmen,

fishermen and shooting parties

and stalking parties.

Without the A9, we wouldn't have any customers.

15 miles south,

there's another business that relies heavily on the A9.

The Ballinluig Motorgrill was set up by owner Clive 30 years ago.

We're not the style of place where we expect you to come in

and linger for three or four hours.

Most people, when they come in here, get their fuel, get their food,

go to the toilet and go.

Table 11. Two haddock, two bread and butter and two mugs of tea, yeah?

The menu hasn't changed.

We maybe change the odd thing. We try a new thing.

But it's what we've had on this menu for years that people want,

like sausage, egg and chips,

bacon, egg and chips, have breakfast.

For trucker Alex, the Motorgrill is a regular stop off.

He has his breakfast here every Sunday.

Morning, girls.

How are you today? Fine.

What are you having today, Alex?

-I'll have breakfast today.

-OK.

-No fried bread or mushrooms.

-Excellent.

-Black coffee. Two toast, one of each, yeah?

-OK, that's great.

She probably didn't have to write it down, either,

because it never changes.

The breakfast won a truckers' award a few years ago.

-Do you want some sauces for that?

-No, thank you anyway. Cheers.

There is black pudding, sausage,

bacon, egg, fried bread and beans.

That will be £6. Thank you, Alex.

One driver's breakfast.

-It'll keep you going for a few more miles, Alex.

-£4 change.

£1 to the girls, £3 to me.

-He doesn't normally do that.

-I do!

I'm only joking. See you next week.

Another group who appreciate the menu on offer

at the Motorgrill are bikers.

Today, an estimated 6,000 of them

are travelling north on the way to Thunder In The Glens,

an annual Harley Davidson festival in Aviemore.

When Thunder In The Glen is on,

we're very busy with bikers. They are all friendly.

They bring lots of stuff in with them.

Their leather jackets and helmets. We've got to trip over them.

No, yes, they're all very friendly.

Best bit of the day, breakfast. Again.

I've been travelling the A9 for God knows how many years now.

It's not particularly a good road for bikes. It's too straight.

But a means to an end.

We need to get to the valley and it's a direct route there,

so you can get there quick and hopefully safely.

On a day where 6,000 motorbikes are expected to be travelling north

on the A9, the police are being extra vigilant.

The volume of bikes has gone up there now.

This is all your Harley enthusiasts.

-Definitely.

-All really in good nick.

-Have a look at that one, though.

-Hm.

The gentleman up there,

he looks as if he's just got a wee pair of cat boots on,

and while it is not mandatory, certainly in this country,

to have protective clothing,

certainly when you're out on main roads like this,

I would say it's best practice.

If we catch up with this chap, we'll just check

and see what kind of clothing he has on and have a wee word with him.

-Doesn't look too...

-Steady.

-Steady on his wheels.

We'll go and have a wee word.

How you doing?

We're just checking various bikes up and down the road today, that's all.

-Thunder in the Glen, by any chance?

-No, I live in Grantown on Spey.

Oh, well, there you go.

Your tyre's not in the best nick, is it?

Roger, what's the date of first registration, please?

I don't think you've got any brake pads left on the front.

You got a friction pad on this side, you've nothing on the other side.

-The wheel should spin freely.

-Yeah.

-It's binding.

The MOT expired in July this year.

The MOT has expired.

I thought they went down at the same time as the insurance?

Obviously not.

I appreciate I'm a biker myself. Do many, many miles on them.

My concern here today is, as we've shown you,

that brake is starting to heat up, yeah?

It's binding on it already.

You can hear the noise it's making.

You spin the wheel, it's not turning freely.

The last I want is to let you away from here riding that bike,

you go up that road and the brake just seizes on you

and you go right over those bars.

A safety point of view, I'm sorry, it's not going anywhere,

I'm putting an immediate prohibition on it.

What you been carrying?

-Ian, have you got enough stuff, mate?

-It's not like camping.

You've got to have your working gear and you're going to get soaked.

You need changes of clothes, you know?

The journey north has stopped short for Ian, but for those heading to

Thunder in the Glens, the majority of riders are safely in Aviemore.

The thing is, we got here in one piece. That's the main thing.

Thunder in the Glens is really all about fun.

The guys, bikers here from all over the world, coming together

to enjoy the friendship and fun that the event brings.

And you can see around you

2,000 bikes plus all just here having a great, fantastic time.

But this time last year, it was a different story,

as two riders lost their lives in an accident on the A9.

The first thing we're going to do this morning is remember,

and remember, actually, the danger that your excitement brings,

because we want to remember in particular

Robert and Valerie Macdonald, who were here last year

and died on their way home from this event.

BAGPIPES PLAY

And every one of us, when we take to the road,

whether it is by car, push-bike or motorbike, we know we take a risk.

And we judge the risk worth taking or we would stay at home

and do nothing all our lives.

Yeah, we all love riding bikes. It's our passion, it's what we do.

We are aware of the dangers, but when we lose someone,

it still impacts on us.

And whether or not we know them personally, we take it personally.

BAGPIPES CONTINUE

BIKE HORNS BLAST

Motorbikes are six times more likely to be involved in a serious

road traffic collision than any other vehicle on Scotland's roads.

And just two days after Thunder in the Glens,

the road traffic patrol team is called to another accident.

SIREN BLARES So that's a two-vehicle injury RTA, by the looks of it.

Two people on a motorcycle.

Apparently, at the moment, they are lying on the road unconscious,

unresponsive, but they are breathing.

-POLICE RADIO:

-'I have just phoned an ambulance, ETA is 53 minutes.'

-What?

-58?!

-58, what?

POLICE RADIO: 'That's not good enough.'

We just overheard there it looks as if there isn't an ambulance

that's relatively close.

Yeah, Lewis, can you just make sure that you keep his spine in line,

please, if he has come off a motorcycle.

Callum has recently qualified as a paramedic.

It's certainly our interest now to make a bit more progress,

because he might be able to assist the casualties.

That's us right at the tailback now.

The road, A9, north and south, is closed.

Two ambulances in attendance along with the air ambulance and a BASICS doctor.

The doctor and two paramedics, air ambulance, are working on the male.

However, at the moment,

they are treating it as a life-threatening injury.

So we react accordingly.

Right, they're away to escort the trauma team up the southbound carriageway.

-OK.

-They're specifically requesting to get right up to him.

-OK.

He has a fractured femur, along with chest injuries.

He's also got bleeding from the ears, might have a closed skull fracture.

One of the other traffic units is further down the road.

They're going to wait and bring the trauma team up the wrong side of the dual carriageway.

Obviously, we have a full double lane block.

They can bring them up along with a police escort

and then pass the helicopter.

Obviously, in this case, they are needed quite desperately.

Just going to lift you at the hip, sorry.

'The A9 Dalwhinnie to Pitlochry road remains closed in both

'directions following an accident at the Killiecrankie cut-off.

'Long delays both ways here.'

I've had a word with the pilot of the helicopter.

We're going to start running the northbound vehicles

in lane one only.

Folks, can I ask you to go back onto your own side of the road?

We're going to move the northbound just now, yeah.

Come on, no need to be going slow. Come on!

The nature of the injuries to the rider, the male rider, they

are quite serious at the moment, so we have got to close the road,

get full crash investigation in, so that could take a number of hours.

And these vehicles here, we're going to get them turned round

and they can use some other roads to get on their way.

If you go up to the Blair Atholl junction,

there's an officer up there.

I run down and then go along the line of traffic here and see

if there is any folk in their cars that want to turn about.

Unfortunately, this is the nature of the A9.

You can look down the valley there.

The roads are really narrow

and it's not suitable for a load of HGVs to go through.

Unfortunately, the HGVs will just need to stack

and wait until the road's open again.

Sorry, you'll just need to sit just now, I'm afraid.

LORRY DRIVER RESPONDS INAUDIBLY

I don't know, I don't know.

Just need to sit just now.

You can see now, we have got masses of lorries here.

This gives you an indication, actually,

how many HGVs are using this road on a daily basis.

Turn round about, please.

Unfortunately, people have seen it all too often, you know,

the ones that travel this road regular.

There's a lot of people that use this on a daily basis

because it's your main link to the Highlands and Inverness.

And, yeah, it's not the first time they'll have come across it.

I'd like to think it's the last one, but being realistic about it,

no, it's not going to be.

Last year, there were 54 road closures on the A9 involving

road traffic collisions or extreme weather conditions,

resulting in lengthy delays for drivers.

Saw the last fatality a few weeks ago. I was caught up in it.

Police were super that night. They came and told us what was happening.

People were that frustrated that night -

you won't believe this, this is no word of a lie -

three people with cars took a section of barrier out

and drove through it to get back southbound.

That's how, you know, frustrated people become and...

..the human being, they just start doing silly things. Yeah.

'The A9 Blair Atholl to Pitlochry road remains closed southbound

'following an accident

'and police are asking drivers to avoid this route.'

For Fraser, the accident brings back memories of his own collision

three years ago.

I've already found myself in the intensive care unit.

I was only a quarter of a mile from the house,

the bike hadn't even warmed up, beautiful May morning.

Not a cloud in the sky. And, eh...

just going along the road - doof! - next thing...

It was like the vegetation we've got here at the side.

Thick, thick bushes and trees,

and Bambi decides to come out right in front of my bike.

I had absolutely no chance.

Never even got a chance to put the brake on.

I went over the bars, down the road,

and ended up with a broken shoulder, erm...

..fractured ribs, broken thumb. Aye.

Last year, there were around 200 deer strikes on the A9.

For forestry ranger Malcolm, keeping numbers down is a year-round job.

It's not a bad office to work in, right enough.

It's fine on days like this when it's a bright, crisp morning,

but when it's pouring with rain or driving snow, it's not so nice.

Sometimes I wish I had an office job, then.

GUN FIRES

The danger is they get hit by the cars.

Well, it is a danger to the deer, but a big danger to the cars.

They're big, solid animals, and if you hit a deer on the road,

if you're doing 60, 70mph,

good chance the car's going to get written off.

Good chance of people getting injured or worse.

There's a lot of crashes happen on the A9 there with people either

hitting the deer or swerving to avoid a deer

and hitting another car and going off the road.

If we're killing these deer here, then that's deer that aren't going to

be getting hit on the road or getting killed by cars and causing accidents.

I don't think the road in itself is that bad.

You see some crazy driving at some times of the year,

right enough, but I don't know if it's any worse than any other road.

I, to be honest, quite like the road.

It's got some bonny spots on it, some great views. I don't see...

But then you get folks like this overtaking in the face of oncoming traffic.

But, in general, I think it's OK.

Nature takes its toll on the road in other ways, too.

The A9 travels through hundreds of miles of varied

and challenging terrain.

With two of the highest road summits in the country

at Drumochter and Slochd,

the winter can bring freezing conditions and driving snow.

The situation just now is that there was an articulated lorry

which has jack-knifed a few hours ago.

So the road has been shut near to Dalwhinnie to try

and get the vehicle recovered.

But also, we've now got the problem of the drifting snow.

The winds are still strong as ever and as darkness comes down, it is

not going to help the visibility.

So we've got snow gates shut at Blair Atholl

and there's another set of gates shut at Trinafour.

The potential is that the A9 will be closed right through the night.

For the police and snowplough teams,

it is a constant battle to keep the road open.

We've got cars there with families in it, young children.

The last thing we want is for them to be sitting here,

potentially right through the night. That's not a good situation.

With 75% of drivers underprepared for winter driving,

any sudden change in conditions can prove catastrophic.

You'd be coming up here, maybe ten, 11 o'clock at night,

and here's someone in a car, you know, fair looking the part.

They have no winter jacket with them,

they have no flask, no travel rug, you know?

Never... There's no preplanning for the scenario here.

You would hate to think what it would be like sitting up there at -10

or 12 below, you know,

in a wee tin box, and there's no heating or nothing happening.

Even in the adverse weather conditions,

impatient driver behaviour is still in evidence.

Snowplough driver Billy patrols the highest summit on the road.

You can guarantee that in your single run,

you'll probably have four or five near misses,

that you'll see folk just getting in and no more.

But we'll never be able to educate them

and tell them just to wait until there's a space to overtake.

He's seen round a shorter bend than he did when he had the long

straight behind him there, and then, as I say, they just...

They eventually decide to just go for it, hope for the best.

I think I'd be in as much a rush that I couldn't wait for a safe overtaking place.

But, unfortunately, most of them are always in a big rush.

I think I just got the thumbs up that they've got a diversion in place,

so we're just about to open the gates.

I've just been speaking with my colleagues from Northern, there.

They have managed to put a bypass in at Dalwhinnie. So, in effect, what's

going to happen is they're going to move some of the traffic onto what

we call the old A9 road and they've put a diversion in for

northbound traffic onto the wagon road.

The traffic car that we've got here from Northern,

they're going to put on what we call a rolling roadblock,

so they're going to chaperone the traffic north

just so that everybody's no' going hell for leather up the road.

Wasn't too bad in the end.

Thankfully, there's not a lot of folk, tourists on the road.

However, you are getting quite a few folk trying to get

to the likes of Aviemore for snowboarding, skiing, etc,

so it's not been too much of a delay for them, thankfully.

But the job's a good 'un, hopefully,

and it'll stay like that for the night.

Someone else regularly patrolling the A9 is amateur weatherman

Windy Wilson.

This is the bit of the A9 that I like to patrol,

so to speak, from the Broxden roundabout in Perth

through to the Keir roundabout in Dunblane.

Just keeping everybody up-to-date with the local road conditions.

I do a wee videocast as well

and that gets uploaded onto my YouTube channel.

Oh, ya hoor, sir!

It's Windy Wilson here.

It's Wednesday afternoon, 13th February, 2013.

Still a lot of cars driving about without their lights on.

Windy says, wipers on, lights on.

The reason I started the Facebook page for the weather was mainly

because I am a keen golfer.

During the summer, I'm on the golf course three or four times a week.

You need to know when the rain is coming in and when it'll pass.

So, just from there, I took a keen interest in the weather

and I started doing local forecasts and that,

just for the surrounding areas in the villages.

To put a forecast together,

you know, what I've got here compared to the Met Office...

The Met Office has got the £30 million supercomputer.

This is a pressure chart I was working on for this weekend,

because we've got a Scandinavian blocking high.

It's nothing too high tech.

I've got my YouTube channel here.

Oh, ya hoor, sir!

Windy Wilson here, it's Tuesday night, 22nd of January.

It's basically just a kind of public service.

Just putting something back into the community, to be honest with you.

-It's 15, 20mph. Snowing like

-BLEEP.

That's me just about to come to a standstill now.

'It's moving well southbound on the A9 at Kessock Bridge

'as you head for Inverness.

'Mist and fog reported in West Lothian...'

The years of extreme weather conditions and increasing

levels of traffic have taken their toll on the condition of the A9.

Parts of the road surface

are nearing the end of their working life.

And in the last year alone, there have been around 500 maintenance

works along the road's length.

Well, it's quite a sight, isn't it? What a feat of engineering.

I wish I'd been on the job in the first place,

but the next best thing is to fix it.

The Kessock Bridge was one of the 12 bridges built in the original upgrade 30 years ago.

It will shorten the journey distance north by some 14 miles.

It spans the Beauly Firth,

and together with the Cromarty and Dornoch crossings,

cut one and a half hours from the old A9 journey time.

Three decades on, the bridge is undergoing a full resurfacing job.

The existing surfacing has lasted a lot better than anyone thought,

which is great news.

But it has reached the point now where there's

so many repairs having to be done, it has to be,

take off the whole lot and put all it back on again,

or else it would be continual lane closures

and patch repairs which,

one, it is annoying for the general public, two, it would end up

less cost-effective than doing the whole bridge in a oner.

The northbound carriageway is completely closed, and the team

must monitor the impact it is having on the morning rush-hour.

Well, it's earlier, it's much earlier than normal.

People coming in at nine are probably not getting it too bad.

So, we'll see how it goes.

-Who looks after the signs?

-Sorry?

-The signs for detours are rubbish.

I think someone has been knocking them down.

We've had guys back out.

There's nothing... There's something down here way in the wrong place.

-Nothing back up here.

-We've got guys going round again, checking them.

-We've just sent guys out 15 minutes ago.

-I've had people come past me

that are going the other way who are really fed up with...

They've gone the wrong way. It's just a shambles.

It really is a poor job, you know, to be honest.

I'm bumping into all these cyclists and people who are going,

"What the hell is going on? I've had to go all round here. Do you know?"

So, honestly... Going to lose the goodwill of people.

We're going to get it done. We're getting signs sorted.

-Cool, all right, I'll look out for it.

-OK.

It's quite a political body, the cyclists in the area.

So we're trying to encourage cyclists as much as we can,

but as I say, there's an awful lot of effort put in to

trying to keep them happy. And we can't keep them happy with this.

We've got to send them further to keep them safe.

The further trip is not always acceptable,

but safety has got to be paramount.

Not everyone is having a bad day.

For engineer Keith, the bridgeworks are an opportunity to appreciate

Scotland's impressive engineering history.

Well, when you're as old as I am

and you've been in this game driving around Scotland, I can never go more

than about 50 miles without seeing something I have been involved in.

It's a great feeling, though, being an engineer,

and being able to drive the country and see you have made

a contribution to the infrastructure of your country.

That's probably why I'm still here after all these years.

Yes, I must say,

this is probably one of the most scenic locations I've worked in.

Absolutely beautiful. Proud to be a Scotsman.

The Kessock Bridge is not the only section of the road

undergoing a major revamp.

One of the main problems on the A9 are the long stretches

of single carriageway and a lack of safe overtaking opportunities.

Plans are under way to dual an 80-mile section

from Perth to Inverness.

At a cost of £3 billion, it is the biggest transport

project in Scotland's history and is due to complete in 2025.

Jo Blewett is the project manager.

What you are looking at here is the first section of the A9.

So this is Perth here, the existing road is here.

And what these plans are starting to pick up are settlements, rivers.

As we move further through, you'll start to pick up

some of the environmental constraints in the corridor as well.

And it just gives us a picture of the jigsaw

that we have to fit together to get the dualling into the corridor.

I really think the A9 is at the stage now where it has got

to be dual carriageway. This road is really, really busy.

It has taken a tremendous amount of money into Aviemore and Glenshee and everything.

People have paid for the roads, they are surely entitled to a safe,

decent road. And it is none of the two just now.

It's bumpy, it's lumpy...

It's just... It's done.

Are we getting very close, working to the railway?

Yes, it does get much closer to the railway as we move further south.

I can understand the public wanting us to go faster.

You know, there's a huge desire for this road to be brought up to

a suitable, modern and safe standard.

At the local level, people do understand the challenges there.

We think some of those challenges will come out more publicly

and people will start to understand just how challenging and difficult this is.

There are parts of the A9 that have remained largely unchanged

over the years and are unlikely to change any time soon.

The single carriageway road north of Inverness is the main route

south for a population of just over 90,000.

And the road reaches Land's End just outside restaurant owner

Jim Cowie's front door.

Well, we feel quite annoyed in the North here at times

when we hear all the talk of dualling the A9,

as if it starts in Perth and finishes in Inverness.

But...it just doesn't happen that way.

It's so important to Caithness.

And it's still the A9 north of Inverness. It's still the A9.

The way I see it, everybody coming from the ferry, going south,

right outside our door here is the start.

People coming from the south to go to Orkney or beyond, or the area,

it's the end.

One of the most asked questions we get here in the restaurant is,

"How do you survive so remote?"

No, no, this is not remote.

If you want the best seafood in the world, this is the centre.

Absolute centre.

If you were to cut me in half, it would be like Edinburgh rock.

You would... Whatever part you cut, it would be Scrabster.

Jim is a regular commuter on the A9,

travelling it every day to get to the fish market.

Right, there's me leaving the Captain's Galley

on my way to the fish market. On the A9.

The answer to the question, how long does it take me to the fish market?

It can take me five minutes, but it has taken me an hour.

Because it all depends who's there to speak to on the way!

Here's us at the fish market now.

You can see, it's not a bad walk, is it?

How would you like to have to make this walk every day?

While the road north of Inverness is likely to remain largely

untouched, further south, an another significant change is on the way.

Average speed cameras are being introduced on the stretch

between Dunblane and Inverness.

HGV in front of us, looks as if it's travelling a good bit

in excess of the maximum 40mph speed restriction allowed on this road.

These vehicles, the biggest majority of them, are governed to 56mph.

So, in effect, when the driver has got his foot

flat down on the accelerator, that is the maximum speed it should do.

95% of HGV drivers are travelling the A9 at speeds above their 40mph

national speed limit, often encouraged to go faster

by the long lines of traffic building up behind them.

We initially stopped you for your speed.

You're clearly aware of the speed limit,

because you slowed to 40 for the speed camera.

And after the speed camera, you sped up again.

-Have you got an idea why I've stopped you?

-No.

-Speed, I'm afraid.

Over a distance of roughly about half a mile, we've measured

your average speed, and I think you were showing 56.2 or something, OK?

Which is, unfortunately, you're not allowed to do on a 40 limit, OK?

-It's too fast.

-Right.

And it's calculated an average speed of 58.44mph.

And you have done that over a distance of 0.494.

Nearly half a mile.

Too fast, eh?

We've had a lot of serious and fatal accidents with heavy goods,

and until the statistics come down or the law changes...

-I know it's a hot potato at the moment.

-I'm kicking myself, cos I know I shouldn't be doing it.

I know, this is it.

Every truck driver will tell you, average speed cameras are going to make this worse.

So you've got one body of people saying one thing

and the powers that be saying the other thing.

So they spend 2.5 million or whatever they do

putting in average speed cameras from Perth to Inverness.

Why not spend 2.5 million on improving parts of the road?

You know, I don't know where the logic of that comes.

In Kincraig, near Aviemore, the first phase of the dualling

plans are being shown to the local community.

But, you see, they are evidently taking over...

This is where the football and the shinty field is.

It's vital for us that we come into the communities

and talk to people to get a local perspective on our ideas.

There is a lot of support widely for dualling,

but sometimes there are local impacts that need to be discussed

and talked about and shared with people.

With the new arrangement, my quality of life will diminish,

because the extra noise of lorries going at higher speeds

than they do now will mean I can't use my back garden.

'The problem is, you make a bigger road'

and immediately you get that filled up with more traffic,

so you can very soon be back in the position you were in before.

-When it's all dualled, I hope we live to see it.

-And I...

We may not be here any more, so...

The exhibition today is really important.

It is a milestone for us, and this is the first of the dualling schemes

between Perth and Inverness, so it's a real milestone.

It's significant, and it is a clear statement that we are moving

this dualling forward as fast as we can.

'The A9 Blair Atholl to Pitlochry road remains closed southbound.'

Another day on the A9. Yeah.

'..Southbound on the A9, the Kessock Bridge...'

Traffic, huge amount of people using the roads nowadays.

Traffic is increasing all the time.

Whether it be we're stopping vehicles to give people

a bit of advice with regards to the manner of their driving,

at the other end of it, if we need to, somebody... If it warrants it,

they are charged for dangerous, careless...

Detecting drink drivers.

It's all adding to the big picture of keeping people

safe on the roads today.

'The A9 remains closed southbound following an accident.'

The A9 has its bad reputation

purely because of the amount of fatal accidents there is on it.

In my eyes, a lot of it is just down to pure frustration.

People just being in too big a hurry.

Really, really in a serious hurry, and that is when it goes wrong

and goes badly wrong for a lot of people. Yeah.