A woman whose husband and granddaughter died in a crash on one of Scotland’s most notorious roads has called for urgent action to improve its appalling safety record.
Security van driver Ian Shennan, from Moray, was jailed for two years and four months for causing the fatal crash at Crubenmore, nine miles north of Dalwhinnie on the A9 between Perth and Inverness.
Paul Anderson, 48, and four-year-old Samantha Carr died in the collision.
Mr Anderson’s widow, Melanie, who was at the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday to see Shennan sentenced, later called for immediate improvements to be made to the A9.
The 46-year-old, of Colne in Lancashire, said: “They’re going to have to do something about the A9 and not keep putting it off like they are doing. How many more people have to die?”
A Scottish Government spokesman said last night ministers were committed to dualling the road, but no timetable for the work had been set.
There were 60 fatalities in accidents on the A9 between 2004 and last year, with 27 of the deaths on the Inverness-Pitlochry stretch.
MP Danny Alexander, whose Highland constituency includes Crubenmore, said: “This tragic case highlights both the extreme dangers of irresponsible driving and also reinforces the road safety case for improvements to the A9.”
Shennan, of 36 Ashfield Drive, Elgin, was heading south towards Edinburgh when he tried to overtake a van which was towing a caravan.
He kept going with the manoeuvre, in a van limited to 63mph, even after a section of dual-carriageway had ended.
Mr Anderson, who was travelling to his 27-year-old niece Vicky Pickering’s funeral after she had died in a car crash on the M6 Birmingham to Carlisle motorway earlier that month, swerved to avoid Shennan’s van but his caravan began to snake from side to side and he hit another car.
Samantha, who was sitting in the back seat, was killed instantly, and Mr Anderson died later in Raigmore Hospital in Inverness.
The deaths also prompted calls from the Association of British Drivers (ABD) to scrap speed-limiting devices, which restrict the speeds of lorries and vans.
A spokesman for the organisation said: “We do not approve of them because it leads to drivers having their foot down all the time. It can make the roads more dangerous.”
But Andrew Howard, the AA’s head of road safety, said: “They (speed limiters) improve fuel economy, improve safety and cut down complaints about driving.”
A spokeswoman for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents added: “In this instance it was the driver’s decision to overtake when he could not complete the manoeuvre safely, rather than the fact that the vehicle was fitted with a speed limiter.”
At the High Court yesterday, Lord Brodie told Shennan: “Your dangerous driving has taken away two lives and will have caused damage to the lives of many others.”
Shennan’s counsel, Peter Gray QC, said he had made a “tragic error of judgment” and that he accepted he was responsible for causing the collision.
Mrs Anderson also criticised the jail term, saying the “sentence doesn’t fit the crime”. She said: “I’ve lost two members of my family. Half of my family have gone and I’ve got to pick up the pieces now.”
Isobel Brydie, chairwoman of the Scottish Campaign Against Irresponsible Driving, said: “You will never recover from it. You can get some peace of mind if you know the person who is responsible for wrecking your family is going to pay a certain price and the place for that is jail.”
Northern Constabulary Chief Inspector Donald Henderson said: “The sentence reflects the seriousness with which the court viewed this incident, but this can never undo the terrible loss.”
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “Ministers are absolutely committed to dualling the A9 between Perth and Inverness as part of the Strategic Transport Projects Review.”
A scheme to double the existing section of dualling at Crubenmore was due to begin last year, but has been delayed until April 2010 at the earliest.