Fury over A9 speed cameras
Plans to install average speed cameras along a 136-mile stretch of the A9 to Inverness have been slammed by the haulage industry, which points out that trucks travelling at their legal maximum of 40mph cause delays to other traffic and may be an indirect cause of accidents as impatient motorists try to overtake them.
Road Haulage Association policy adviser for Scotland, David Eaglesham, said: “We agree that slow-moving HGVs cause problems on the A9 due to the current lorry speed limit.
“I should also make it absolutely clear that whilst average speed cameras may help improve safety on the A9, the Road Haulage Association maintains that a vital component of the package to reduce accidents is to set the HGV limit at 50mph on single carriageway A-road stretches with this limit strictly enforced.
“40 mph on such roads – where the 60 mph national speed limit for cars applies – is a wholly inappropriate, out-of- date limit for twenty-first century lorries.
“No wonder motorists feel frustrated in a queue behind an HGV travelling at around 40 mph. These stretches of road on the A9 are prime examples of the need for change; however the RHA firmly believes that this 40mph limit needs raised to 50mph across all such A-roads in Great Britain.”
The Inverness Courier newspaper is running a campaign to get the limit for heavy trucks increased to 50 mph on the road between Dunblane and Inverness.
Scottish transport minister Keith Brown announced the installation of the cameras earlier this summer, but at the same time he admitted that plans to dual-carriageway the route would not see fruition until 2025.
A number of truck drivers are planning a mass ‘legal protest’ when they will stick rigidly to the 40 mph limit prior to the installation of the cameras, to bring home to the politicians the consequences of the scheme.
Highlands and Islands Labour MSP and road safety campaigner David Stewart wants a pilot trial of the 50 mph limit for trucks.
“I appreciate there are different views on increasing the speed of HGVs from 40mph to 50mph on the A9, but let’s look at the facts and analyse a six-month pilot,” he told the Inverness Courier.
“Let us see if it reduces the frustration which is a contributing factor in a lot of road collisions. It is driver behaviour that we have to influence.”
Meanwhile, chief secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander, also MP for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch & Strathspey, called the plan a “knee-jerk reaction”, and said the Scottish authorities should use some of the £1.1 billion made available by central government for infrastructure funding to bring forward the dual carriageway proposals.
