Campaigners call for safety improvements on A9 Raigmore Interchange in Inverness
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ACTIVISTS have renewed calls for safety improvements on a busy road crossing in Inverness where a grandmother was killed after being struck by a car.
The Highland Cycle Campaign said a year-long wait for safety measures which could amount to traffic lights, was “not nearly fast enough when people’s lives are at stake”.
Its secretary Anne Thomas said members have been calling on Transport Scotland to install safety measures on the southbound A9 slip road where it links with the A96 for 20 years now.
Following the death of 58-year-old Inverness grandmother Phoebe Mackenzie in February it said a combined footway and cycleway with traffic signal-controlled crossings to link a route through Raigmore Interchange could be put in place – but not until next year.
Ms Thomas said that was an unacceptable length of time.
“A year is not nearly fast enough when people’s lives are at stake,” she said.
“We’ve been pushing for something to be done about it for over 20 years already. My fear is someone else will be injured.
“Many people don’t have an option of going a different way.”
Highland councillor Jimmy Gray said anxiety over the year-long timescale was understandable but it was a complex problem to solve.
“I think it will definitely take a year to see this change come in,” he said.
“You can understand people’s anxieties but it will be a complicated design because what we’ll be doing is backing traffic onto the roundabout and that’s probably the fastest roundabout in the Highlands.”
A Transport Scotland spokesman said its officials had met with Police Scotland and Bear Scotland to gather more information about the cause of the fatal collision.
A council spokeswoman said: “In terms of timescales, we have just received correspondence from Transport Scotland following a letter to their chief executive from the ward councillors and we are about to engage in options for procuring design.”
