Grieving mum wants to find out the human cost of 'killer road' in bid to help improve A82
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A GRIEVING mum wants to recruit an army of families whose lives have been ripped apart by one of Scotland’s deadliest roads.
Samantha Cousin says she will not stop campaigning until life-saving improvements are made on the A82.
Her efforts come a month after her son Rhys (25), his wife Gemma (26) and their daughters Peyton (3) and Heidi (1) were killed in a crash on the trunk road near Fort William.
Ms Cousin (46) is now making a plea for relatives of other people killed or seriously injured on the A82 to come forward as she tries to build the human story of the killer road.
“I refuse to let my family become just another statistic,” she said.
“But at the moment all we have are numbers. Numbers of accidents and deaths – these are all people and families impacted by events on this road.
“It is high time that we started to put faces to those numbers. The real cost of the A82 is human lives.”
In the last seven months, on the section of the A82 between Fort William and Inverness there have been eight deaths, including that of nurse teacher Chloe Morrison, from Drumnadrochit.
Figures released in 2018 showed that 186 people were killed or seriously injured on the A82 in the previous three years, including 29 serious accidents near Fort William.
“The road might be nicknamed The Forgotten Road, but the people who died on it will not be forgotten,” Ms Cousin said.
“I’ve been told that the road itself was not at fault for my family’s accident. But it was. That road is narrower in many places than any other trunk road in Scotland, and it has a very heavy volume of traffic on it.
“If you hit a soft verge you can fly all over the road. So there are problems with the structure of the road.
“But I want other families to tell me their stories, so we can go to the politicians, not with numbers and statistics but with the actual lives and stories of the people who died on the road.
“They might be able to ignore the numbers but they should not be allowed to ignore the people.
“This is a killer road because it has not been modernised sufficiently.
“If people don’t feel safe on the road because a large number of people are dying or being injured then the road is not good enough – end of story.”
Highland councillor Ben Thompson, chairman of the A82 Partnership action group, said: “The A82 is simply not fit for purpose.
“It falls far below the standard that anyone would expect for a busy trunk road. Transport Scotland will say they are investing in it, but the money being spent on it is just crumbs compared to what they will spend elsewhere – on roads that don’t cause as many tragedies.
“Major upgrades that improve safety are long overdue along the entire length of the A82.”
Highland MSP Kate Forbes said: “Every accident on the A82 is one accident too many and it feels like the numbers are rising. My commitment remains to see the A82 upgraded, particularly through Fort William, as soon as possible.”
Transport Scotland has spent an average of £11.8 million on improvements in each of the last five years but was unable to specify the locations where this took place.
Anyone who would like to get in touch with Ms Cousin can do so by sending an email, along with their contact details, to newsdesk@hnmedia.co.uk
