10/07/2013 Newsnight Scotland

not on the Monopoly board. -- London landmark. It is not on the

Tonight on Newsnight Scotland: They call it the killer road, and last

night it killed three more people, including a mother and child. Yet

statistics show the A9's single carriageways are actually less

dangerous than the average trunk road. So, what causes the regular

incidents of carnage, and what more can be done about it? Also tonight,

in the world's most golf-mad nation, why are so many local golf clubs

running into financial trouble? Good evening. Over the years,

Scotland has had a few candidates for most dangerous road. The

predecessor of the M74 and before that the three-lane predecessor of

the M8 had hellish reputations for road deaths. Modern road design,

and of course motor technology, has dramatically reduced the death toll,

and now the Government is committed to creating a dual carriageway

between Perth and Inverness. But that won't be complete for 12 years

and, in the meantime, there are real fears that last night's

tragedy near Kingussie will not be The latest tragedy on the A 9 has

focused minds on what should be done about a road which seems to

have a fearsome reputation. This crash, which happened on Tuesday

evening, claimed the lives of Prix people - including a mother and her

young daughter. -- three people. The incident prompted calls for

action to improve safety. A tragedy - it is always a tragedy when there

is a fatal accident. A family has been affected. There are too many

of these happening on the length and breadth of the land. The A

Macro 9 seemed to be a tremendously dangerous road for all sorts of

reasons. We're on the stretch of road that runs between Perth and

Inverness. I was born and grew up in the Highlands and have driven up

and down this road four-times than I care to remember. I have always

been aware of the reputation as a road that claims lives. Do the

official figures suggest another story? In 2009, there were three

deaths on the road between Perth and Inverness and 14 serious

injuries. The numbers fluctuated in the intervening years. Last year,

latest information suggests there were five deaths and for serious

injuries. Scott as Transport Minister says up grading the road

was a major project which would take time and money to complete. --

Scotland's Transport Minister. There are a number of advantages. A

wider road is safer. It improves the economic benefits. The road

should have been jailed decades ago. That is where we have announced we

would do that and do it by 2025. Does Keith Brown reckon it is one

of the country's most dangerous roads? This road is twice as safe

as other roads in Scotland. That is the average. Also, if you asked the

police, the police would say it is a safe road and compete driven

safely. This is how the road between Perth and Inverness looks

at the moment. Much of it is single carriageway. These sections can

cause confusion and frustration. Under the upgrade programme, this

part of the road will be fully jewelled button to 25. Safety is

not just about the state of the roads. -- and will have dual

carriageways throughout by 2025. Nobody is suggesting that spending

billions of pounds of fruit will prevent fatal accidents like this

were happening in the future. -- billions of pounds will prevent

fatal accidents. I'm joined now by Road Haulage Association director

Phil Flanders, who's in Dundee. And here in Glasgow Neil Greig of the

Advanced Motorists Institute. Let's not get into what happened

yesterday. Apart from any illness, it is probably no matter of police

investigation. -- anything else. can be quite predictable of where

these accidents are going to happen and how they will become. They tend

to be head on crashes with people making people overtaking the

neighbourspoint. -- manoeuvres. you mean somebody pulls up from a

junction and they are not leaving enough distance? The road is not

helping to protect. A motorway protect someone making a mistake.

Everyone is going in the same direction. You do not have had on

crashes. A long distance mainly single carriageway road, it is not

protecting drivers who make mistakes. From what you are saying,

is the idea ates a transition between the dual carriageways and

the single carriageways something of a myth? 80s. The mix translates

into bad driver behaviour. -- it is. You do tend to see some speeding up

of traffic. On entrance to the dual carriageway sections, there are

problems. It is about making a mistake and bad behaviour. You have

nowhere to hide with an accident. That is way we have really

spectacular, will double fatal accidents. The idea that Neil Greg

hand that the road itself obviously cannot be blamed for everything

that is not helping. -- had. Does that fitting with your members'

experience? When you come to the end of a dual carriageway, everyone

is desperate to get past slow- moving traffic. When you're doing

70, 80 miles an hour, it is difficult to reduce your speed.

Everyone continues like that. On a single carriageway, there is a lot

of frustration and people do silly things. Everyone who has been on

this road will know of at least one incident where someone has done

something really stupid. It will happen again. Let's hope it will

get sorted sooner rather than later. As Andrew was saying in the fell,

statistically this road is not actually that pound. It has a

terrible reputation. -- that bad. Is it the length of the road but

encourages this kind of behaviour? People could be stuck behind a

truck going at 40 miles an hour. Is it the length of it? Part of it is.

An average journey from Perth to Inverness takes about two-and-a-

half hours. If you are stuck behind his slow-moving vehicle, with a

truck on a caravan or retractor, people are desperate to make up the

time. -- ate a tractor. We will see some really strange minibus on the

road that are very dangerous. manoeuvres. Neither of you would

argue against turning the whole lot into a dual carriageway. We had

better think of something else can have given the number of accidents.

Isn't some of the ideas that have been proposed - one idea that you

could increase the speed limit for HGV drivers so they're not

perceived by other measures to be holding the traffic up? That would

be a useful idea. -- other motorists. This is being looked at

the UK level. There is widespread ignorance about the biggest trucks

are only allowed to do 40 miles an hour. They know these vehicles can

go faster. That can be frustrating. It is a very important trunk route

- an important trade route. If it did not work, we would like to see

it taken back as quickly as it went in. It is the sort of thing we

could try - something new. It is the unique route in the mix of

traffic and the length of road. We could have some new and innovative

ideas, such as a different speed limit for the largest tracks.

would support that? It is being looked at as the moment. And one

possibility, this could be looked at by your organisation, that vehicles

which are limited to 40 mph could every now and then pull into one of

these lay-by is, and there are a lot of them, and if they see a queue of

traffic behind them, and I know some traffic does this, but it is not

that common for them to do it. That would help, and it would not just a

big truck drivers, but people have the right to move along at 35 mph in

their little car if they want to, but perhaps they do not have the

right to have 40 vehicles behind them without pulling in to let them

pass? You are right, most lorry drivers know it is sensible to do

so, and the vast majority will pull over and let traffic to pass by when

they get the opportunity. Is that true, Neill, I am sure some

motorists would dispute that? are not many occasions are places

you can pull over or have a server stopped or a toilet break...

could let the traffic pass by? drivers provide the lifeblood of the

economy, if the goods do not get to Inverness on time, they have a

financial penalty, so they have to keep going. One other issue, Neill,

speed cameras, this is something that transport Scotland was looking

at, had a relevant? The kind of accidents we're getting here, you

could be happy to drive at 60 mph, within the speed limit, it is the

overtaking that you do when you get frustrated, so would average speed

cameras be any good? When most of the problems are overtaking

accidents, that is about top speed. It is expensive to enforce the speed

limit in this way. Thank you very much indeed, both of you.

Now, if your children have spent the week dreaming of being tennis

champions, give them another few days and it will be golf. The

Scottish Open starts tomorrow at Castle Stuart, and next week, the

Open itself, at Muirfield. A higher percentage of the population plays

golf here than in any other country. In Germany, for example, there's one

golf course for every 114,000 people. In England it's one for

28,000. But here in Scotland, it's one for about 10,000 people. A

recent report by KPMG found the game is worth over �1 billion to the

Scottish economy. But in spite of successful initiatives to encourage

children to start the game, some of our community clubs are now

struggling to make ends meet, as memberships fall below a sustainable

level. Part of the problem, as Ian Hamilton has been finding out, is

that a glut of new courses in recent According to a recent report

published by KPMG, golf is really important for the Scottish economy.

They said it is worth nearly �1.2 billion. Music plays. There are 600

golfing facilities across the country including golf ranges. In

the last 20 years, there has been an expansion in the number of golf

courses in Scotland where there is an increase of 20%. But over the

same timescale, we have always seen a 5% increase in the number of

players taking up the game. So, plenty of choice for golfers, as it

has pushed down the prices, but some say, not as good for the industry,

has some golf clubs struggle to send membership -- sell membership. This

has contributed to the plight of some of our oldest clubs. Tough

economic times and several poor summers has put this old golf club

in jeopardy. Tell us about this club? This was established in 1877

and we are the oldest golf club in the Scottish Borders. Ten years ago,

we were touching nearly 300 full members, and now, this year, we have

got 114. It is nearly �70,000 in sobs that we are losing. Is it

purely economics, other golf clubs around the country say, the bad

weather did not help over the bad summers? It is not helped the

finances, because golf is a luxury. It is a luxury that some people have

to do without. Put on top of that, two or three really bad summers that

we have had, it has put paid to a lot of people 's hobbies. Last

month, KPMG published a report saying that 20,000 jobs in Scotland

were dependent on golf. For some, it might just be about knocking a small

ball about a park, but with wages of more than �300 million a year, it is

clearly a major contributor to the Scottish purse. We want to grow the

game as the golf industry in Scotland, and this report gives us

the economic value of golf to Scotland and provides a base where

we can develop it further. There are 650 car professionals in Scotland,

many of them involved in coaching and running shops. -- golf

professionals. They believe that they could avoid some of these

economic problems if they use these golf clubs properly. Traditionally,

you have got a lot of business people in golf clubs, and if they

ran their business the way that there are golf club was run, then it

would go bust. The structure and the Scottish golf union, they are

working to try to assist the clubs on their business management

structure and how this will work, and hopefully that is where many of

the PGA members could be of good assistance. These youngsters at the

heart of the East End of Glasgow, as you see, they are getting a golf

lesson. It is all part of the government drive to get every child

from the age of nine the opportunity to play the game. This is Gleneagles

hotel, a world away from a primary school in the East End of Glasgow.

Next year, the Ryder Cup comes here. This is one of our suites that has

been really very popular over the years. They hope that it will create

a legacy by getting more people to play and attract more golf tourists.

There is no doubt that the Ryder Cup will bring a great legacy to

Scotland. It has been many years since we have had it here, 1973, and

it is quite likely that it will be many years for it to return. But for

those few short days for those that follow golf, it will be the upper

centre of everything they are interested in, a wonderful

experience for Scotland. Something like half a billion people across

the world will be watching the Ryder Cup. I think it is like the third

most watched sporting event in the world. It is a phenomenal

opportunity as a platform for us to portray Scottish golf at its best.

The average golfer in Scotland is in their 40s and 50s. If the game

doesn't fight back and attract new members, clubs like here could be in

deep trouble in the future. That was Ian Hamilton, a quick look at the

newspapers for tomorrow, economic recovery underway finally, according

to the Scottish Chamber of Commerce.

The Guardian newspaper, MoD fears for Trident sub days, the British

government might designate Faslane has a nuclear area if Scotland were

true independence. The Daily Telegraph, do we have the Daily

Telegraph? Cameron put the dish identity at heart of case for union.