Ross County and Caley Thistle issue impassioned plea backing A9 dualling for fan safety
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AN impassioned plea to dramatically improve safety on the major road in and out of the Highlands has seen a Ross County legend team up with his Caley Thistle counterpart to demand action.
The joint call to prioritise dualling of the A9 is fuelled in Ross-shire by concern for supporters, players, staff and the general public making regular trips on a route that has claimed many lives down the years.
As recently as Wednesday night, one person was taken to hospital following a crash at the notorious Munlochy junction on the A9.
Ross County chief executive Steven Ferguson lined up alongside his Inverness Caledonian Thistle counterpart Scot Gardiner yesterday to make a stand on an issue that has been forced onto the Scottish Government radar in recent months thanks in part to a high-profile campaign by Ross-shire Journal parent company, Highland News and Media.
The duo – who stressed their appeal is driven by public welfare and is non-political – made their remarks after confirmation earlier this year that the 2025 deadline for dualling would be missed.
Mr Ferguson – a former County player and manager – offered a powerful case to back the call for urgent dualling of the route.
He said: "For the first team – 25 away trips and 10 hours per trip so 250 hours on the road. That’s just first team games and doesn’t include meetings, mandatory events that our club and players have to attend in the central belt.
“Our supporters obviously travel either by supporters’ bus or cars to the same away games as the first team.
“Our Academy will have 40 away trips over under 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16 age groups and our under 18s will have 12 away trips per season. Like our supporters, parents and families supporting their child will normally travel by car to these fixtures.
"The main issue for us travelling the A9 regularly will be the same as for any other individual, family or business living and working in the Highlands that travel the A9 on a regular basis – and that is safety.
“For us, a premier league football club with a first team and academy playing in a national games' programme we have no option but to travel the A9.”
He said: "Concerns are raised regularly internally, especially when travelling in adverse weather conditions, the challenge of seasonal ‘tourist’ traffic and evening kick-offs. I think anyone who travels the A9 will see at least one accident or a near miss every trip which is a crazy statistic. There have been some horrendous accidents that sadly have resulted in too many people losing their lives."
He added: “I accept that dualling between Perth and Inverness cannot not take away from human error but the risk of accidents will reduce hugely. Dualling would simplify the drive, reduce travel time and frustrations and manage the heavy ‘visitor’ traffic going north and south on a daily basis and again reduce the chances of a full road closure."
Caley Thistle’s chief executive, Scott Gardiner, said: "Steve and I speak intermittently, mainly on football matters, but we have spoken more than once on the situation regarding the A9, especially since the campaign and recent events brought the matter even more to the fore.
"As Highland businesses, let alone football clubs, we both felt it would give out a very strong message to show that our two clubs support the dualling of the A9.
"Our Caley Thistle team bus has travelled up and down the A9 hundreds of times over the years and we have been caught in huge traffic delays many times because of traffic accidents and, sadly, on at least one occasion when heading south to play in a match because of a fatal accident.
"The game did not seem important after that.”
Mr Gardiner continued: "No matter what team we support work or play for all of us in the Highlands feel the same terrible knot in the stomach when we hear there has been another accident on the A9 because they rarely seem to be inconsequential, and everyone joins together to support the campaign and intention to dual the A9 as a matter of priority."
