Grieving mum Samantha Cousin says two years after death of Highland family on the A82 nothing has changed
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Samantha Cousin has been campaigning for safety changes on the A82 since the death of her son, his wife and their two young children.
Rhys (25), his wife Gemma (26) and their daughters Peyton (3) and one-year-old Heidi lost their lives in a crash just north of Fort William while making their way home to Inverness on February 20, 2020.
Originally from Inverness but now living in Orkney, Miss Cousin described herself as being “numb” ever since the devastating accident and said she has found the second anniversary of her family’s deaths even harder to bear than the first.
She recently appeared on an episode of Panorama on BBC TV – Britain’s Worst Roads – to raise her concerns about the trunk route and said: “As the A82 is a main road you would think they would prioritise their funding knowing that it kills all the time.”
But she added: “Since the crash nothing has been done and deaths are still occurring.”
Her main drive in life now, she said, was to do whatever she can to see the road improved so that no other family has to experience the pain she continues to face as a result of her loss.
She said she would be willing to join any group to give her ideas on what could be done, but fears that no one with the power to do anything is actually listening.
She previously described her efforts to get a commitment to improvements as being like screaming into the void.
The Inverness Courier mounted a campaign calling for improvements and launched a petition that attracted thousands of signatures.
To date, however, little significant change has occurred.
“No officials have reached out to even discuss the A82,” Miss Cousin said.
“I feel that the A82 is just being ignored as to how dangerous it really is.
“They say that there is nothing they can do, or they put speed cameras up that are of no use.
“Even if they did it in sections (that would be something) but I don’t know because I’m not a professional.”
The A82, the main westerly link between the Highlands and central Scotland, has previously been dubbed Scotland’s “Forgotten Road”, a “poor relation” of the A9, despite figures showing how more accidents have been recorded on it than any other Scottish trunk road.
Data provided to the Scottish Liberal Democrats by the Scottish Government revealed there had been 55 serious collisions and 18 fatalities recorded on the route between January 2017 and summer 2019, months before the Cousin family were lost.
Highland councillor David Fraser, who represents the Aird and Loch Ness ward, previously said change had to come “sooner rather than later” to deal with what he said are a number of accident hot spots on the route.
He suggested the introduction of a new 50mph limit for the entirety of the route, reducing to 20mph as the road passes through towns.
