THE SNP government have been accused of betraying commuters who rely on the A96 after new figures highlighted the human toll of their failure to dual one of Scotland’s deadliest roads.
New statistics from the Scottish Government show 133 collisions have resulted in fatalities or injuries on undualled sections of the Aberdeen to Inverness road over the last five years. Of these crashes, 11 deaths have occurred.
This is a 432% difference compared to dualled parts of the road where 25 incidents were recorded and no deaths occurred.
For this year alone, up until September 10, three fatalities have happened on undualled parts of the A96 which is already higher than 2023 and 2022 put together.
Scottish Conservative MP for Gordon and Buchan, Harriet Cross, said the figures are the “tragic reality” of the SNP’s decision to backtrack on dualling of the A96.
Plans spanning more than a decade to dual the A96 in full were put on hold after the SNP formed a coalition with the Greens in 2021.
As part of the power-sharing deal, a review of the project was undertaken after the Greens raised “urgent” environmental impact concerns about fully dualling the A96.
Last week, Green co-leader Patrick Harvie said he didn’t think there was “any serious likelihood” of the full dualling going ahead.
On the new figures, Scottish Conservative Gordon and Buchan MP Harriet Cross said: “These horrifying figures are the tragic reality of the Scottish Government’s decision to dither and continue to delay on dualling the A96.
“It’s evident from these figures that dualling the road would help to reduce the daily collisions and near misses experienced by commuters on a seemingly daily basis.
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“The fact the SNP government could potentially waste millions of taxpayers’ money by winding back on their commitments is outrageous.
“Their apparent U-turn on the A96 dualling is risking the safety of motorists, hampering the creation of new jobs, restricting our emergency services and putting off much-needed potential investors in our local and regional economy.”
The Scottish Government has previously acknowledged the importance of road safety improvements. The stark contrast in accident rates is likely to increase pressure on authorities to prioritise the dualling project.
