View Full Version : A9 Near Helmsdale
So they're finally going to do something about the A9 near Helmsdale after some accidents and an awful lot of near misses. It is truly miraculous that nobody was killed during all the time that Transerv were denying all responsibility. People have complained for weeks and weeks, but Transerv were adamant it wasn't the road itself. All of a sudden, they need to put 20 MPH signs up. 20. On the main trunk road in the country! All of a sudden they are going to do a repair. Am I in a minority of 1 or does anyone else think that maybe Transerv should have their contract terminated a bit earlier than they expected?
I assume this is about the twisty stretch with the "slippery surface" signs?
I was on that section about three weeks ago at night in the rain and if the thermometer in the car hadn't said it was 9c I would had sworn it was icy. Wheelspin at 25mph in 3rd gear, not funny!
Terminate their Contract? Terminating them would be a better option! The 20 MPH signs are just there to provide a "get out" to shift the blame for their lack of routine maintenance.
The way the main roads have been allowed to deteriorate over these last few years is a disgrace and a false economy in the long run.
mums angels
19-Dec-06, 16:24
Surley they can't be as bad as Bear was !!!!
Hate that bit of road and always make sure i'm really careful on it , cars behind me have beeped the horn because i slow down to almost nothing....better safe than sorry :)
grumpyhippo
19-Dec-06, 17:08
Iif the thermometer in the car hadn't said it was 9c I would had sworn it was icy.
Please don't assume that a temperature indicated on a car display is an accurate reading of the temperature of the road surface. The detector for the display is somewhere above the road and gives the temperature of the air a few inches off the ground.
A couple of years ago I stopped to assist at at a minor crunch near Watten, the road was glissening, but only when I stepped out of the car did I realise the road surface was sheet ice! A person who came along shortly after only just managed to avoid colliding with the original accident said 'but my car temperature display says its 6 degrees above freezing' As he stepped from his car and fell on his butt it was difficult not to laugh.
Don't rely on technology to keep you safe in the North, the road surface can be icy in localised areas even when the surrounding area seems quite mild.
Yes, this is the twisty bit with the slippery road signs.
I doubt that road was icy, not because of your themometer reading, but because of all the problems people have had there. I managed to do an S turn on that bit and it's a good job I was taking my time. Only after that did I come across the first slippery road sign. On the way back I slowed down before the first sign and crawled right through until I was well past the last sign.
They've been risking our lives by not tackling a known problem. If I did that at work, I'd get a jail sentence. How do they get away with it? Even though they are fixing it now, they should still be prosecuted for their negligence.
Yes, they are definitely worse than Bear, based on this case.
Surley they can't be as bad as Bear was !!!!
Im afraid its the same people no matter what the company is i.e Bear, Transerv. They take the same people on who has work with the previous company. Their depot is in Dunbeath, thats the main one for up hear.
But i suppose most info probably comes from down south... but Im not that sure on that one..
The road is pretty twisty there. With the slippery surface and SLOW signs up, it's also the car drivers to blame as the amount of cars who go whizzing round the bends ignoring the signs is high. A few weeks ago, when we were travelling around the bends, a car overtook us!.. Make that two cars as another one passed straight after. Although the road has many bends, I'm sure that if the road was well gritted and people took their time and did what the signs say, there wouldn't be as many accidents. Even if you still slide going slow, there is a very small chance of death or a bad accident compared to those who just think they can drive as fast as they want... Just my opinion but I am involved with a road safety campaign so surley it makes some sense what I said.
Bill Fernie
19-Dec-06, 17:50
Just to remind everyone that a new section of the A9 will begin construction next year - they say early but somehow these things always slip as it was originally to be in 2006. However when the new section is built it will by-pass this and slippery section of the road.
The new section will join up with the new part opened earlier this year.
The new section is Phase Two, which was estimated to cost £5.5 million, would be mainly off-line and would remove the tortuous bends and ease the steep gradients between Helmsdale and Allte Briste North.
The old part will become a minor road when the new section opens and as with the first phase there are probably some parts that will disppear or be closed if they do not access any houses. Some of it does and will have to be retained.
When you look back over the past 20 years an amazing number of stretches of the road have been improved and if you keep your eyes peeld you can still see many bendy sections of the former road - that in some places now make lay-bys.
Anyone travelling the road from Caithness to Inverness for the past 40 years will have seen many improvements and a shortening of the journey time. At one time it might have taken 10 or 12 hours to go from Caithness to Edinburgh but now it can be done in 5 and half hours if you are lucky and do not make too many stops.
The part mentioned north of Helmsdale is possibly one of the worst parts of the A9 and may be one of the main reasons a complete section of road is to be built. The companies that maintin the road are not resposible for this. The Scottish Executive decide where new roads are to be built. Companies like Transerv and on that stretch formerly BEAR do what is required according to the contract they sign with the Scottish Executive for the trunk road network. Formerly that would have been a local council responsibility.
If the new section matches the part already built it should make considerabel difference and reduce the accident rate for the area. Meantime it is case of keeping the speed down as you enter and leave that stretch of road north of Helmsdale. I personally cannot think of another stretch of the roard on the way north where I have seen so many accidents and so many involving only one vehicle some turned over and one on its roof.
The ones I saw were all early in the morning when I was heading for meetings in Inverness. Having travelled the road up anddown to Wick for over 30 years i have always been very wary in that stretch - perhaps having seen the results of so many accidents. It is perfectly OK in dry weather apart from all the bends. I also think the number of changes of bend and different sizes all test your driving in away that few other stretches on the A9 do. changes of speed and angles of bend all come rapidly one after another. For anyone unused to it I can see how probelms arise especially if driving too fast through it. You needed to change speed often to be safe.
I have often been overtaken when slowing down from 40 to 30 to 25 by someone probably doing 50+ and in the right vehicle in dry weather it is perfeclty pssible to do this. but if your driving is not very good then it is easy to mis judge bend and in the wet then it become extremely dangerous. Add ice , black ice and water running off the hill one side as it does nearly all the time in winter these days and you have an accident easily waiting to happen for anyone going too fast - and that might mean 30 mph in bad conditions or even slower speeds. At least at 20mph if conditions are poor you will probably survie a skid.
Until the signs go up watch it going through that stretch. I would not like to see another smash in that stretch or any other road come to that.
What other bad stretches do people encounter up north? Always handy to have them in your head.
I understand what you are saying RFR10, but that stretch of road is a disgrace and there should be no requirement for 20mph speed limits if the condition of the road was satisfactory.
I don't often drive - its usually hubby, but travelling down the road to visit a friend one night, I slowed down knowing that people had commented on how bad the road was - at that time, I must admit I thought it was because they hadn't slowed down adequately. I can't have been travelling any more than 30 (this was before it was signed for 20mph) and couldn't believe how slippy it was.
In fact, I would say that stretch of road was slippier at 30 than any road I have driven on this year when its been hard frost and Saturday night at 5:30pm was pretty slippy.
i have travelled on this stretch of road 2 to 4 times a day for the past 5 years and have had no trouble but i do slow down for these bends. its good to see that there is some safety measures being introduced as not every one that travels on this road knows it as well as i do. i stil think that some people will ignore these signs and there will still be problems.
These accidents have been happening long before there was any question of it being cold enough for ice.
If accidents occur regularly at the same spot, where ever it is, then there is a problem with the road layout at that location. It's far easier for Highways Authorities to "Pass the Buck", it saves then the effort and expense of doing anything.
There is a set formula for pricing each reported accident and that includes setting a value on people's lives.
It doesn't matter how many people die or are seriously injured, the formula is applied and the set costs of any accidents calculated. Only when that exceeds the cost of any changes does anything happen.
"Only ten fatal accidents? we need at least fifteen to make any changes for it to make economic sense!" It's as ruthless as that.
The position at Helmsdale will be that calculations will have been done setting the cost of accidents during the period until the new road is opened
against the cost of repairs for that period. From that a simple comparison will be made and somebody will decide that X number of fatalities can occur before the economy is out of pocket.
If you are unfortunately one of those fatalities than tough, it made economic sense to let you die rather than spend money fixing the problem.
And they don't even have the decency to send flowers to your funeral as a thank you for dying to save them money! :roll:
porshiepoo
20-Dec-06, 06:37
I'm not sure but I think this is the area of road that I saw some kind of incident on on Saturday. Just coming around one of the twisty bends and a car appears stopped in the road. Hubby slammed the breaks on and no harm done but there was another vehicle there facing the wrong way on our side of the road. I assume there had been some kind of skidding happen but at least no harm was done.
That whole road terrifies me sometimes and 'll go slow on that stretch regardless of the weather and regardless of who tail lights me.
Infact, we're off to inverness again in half an hour so will be passing this stretch - hopefully it's not icy out there.
I don't think it's acceptable to have a 20 MPH stretch (and we're not just talking a few yards on a hair pin bend) on the main trunk road in the country. Many of the problems reported by people have occurred on straight sections of that road. My own little adrenaline moment occurred on a straight section. You expect to have to drive carefully, but you don't expect to have to stick to a 20 MPH limit because of a problem with the road itself. Not for a period of months. Supposing every road was like this? How would you feel about that? Travelling from Thurso to Edinburgh at 20 MPH. What year is this? They used to go faster on horse back.
The point of starting my thread is that there is a section of road with a known problem. It has been reported by numerous people on numerous occasions. However, those that get paid to provide us with a service have put the lives of the road users at un-necessary risk over a prolonged period of time. That is our money that pays for the service. Why did we not get the service we are entitled to? I would like to see someone prosecuted for this.
does any body know if there is any plans to upgrade the road south of golspie at the turn of to embo. this twisty stretch of road is nearly as bad as navidale.
does any body know if there is any plans to upgrade the road south of golspie at the turn of to embo. this twisty stretch of road is nearly as bad as navidale.
To start off with, that's what I thought they were doing at the moment but it's a new road to the school that they are putting in just now.
To start off with, that's what I thought they were doing at the moment but it's a new road to the school that they are putting in just now.
Its a bit further down the road than that i should have said south o the Mound at the turn of to Embo.
Whitewater
22-Dec-06, 22:15
I don't think the 20mph signs will do much good. "Touch wood" it is a section I love driving and I have not had an accident on, but I always drive to the road conditions at the time and do not take any chances. I find driving long featureless motorways boring in comparision.
I used to love driving this stretch of road years ago; it only takes a bit of common sense to drive safely. People drive much too fast now, lulled by the increased stability of cars and modern tyre technology. Also, how many people know what to do when they do get into trouble? How many have any idea what to do in a skid?
Nope - drive to suit the conditions, not ones ego - that's the answer. :confused
The clue to what is happening on this road - is that most of the incidents are single vehicle incidents.
Yes the road is not as good as it should be, but surely you drive any road according to conditions.
The speed limit through Wick or Thurso is 30 mph, have you ever tried to drive at that speed through either.
There are far worse roads that this about, we do lead a sheltered life up here, and it is wonderful.
The authorities are aware that there is a problem for some drivers, and are going to do something about it. However - when it is done, and the first vehicle incident takes place - Oh Dear!!! where will we go from here?
I'm sorry JimH, but you are trying to gloss over an extreme situation.
The road is not through a congested town, but out in the open.
It is THE major trunk road in this country.
My own incident and many others occurred at a low speed on a road that is supposed to be fit for 60 MPH.
My own incident and many others occurred on a straight section.
My own incident occurred prior to the first sign warning of slippery conditions.
Would you make your comments about a motorway that you, personally, use regularly, because there is no real alternative?
The problem was reported many times, over a period of months and the authorities responsible, paid very well by us and for a service, failed utterly to provide a reasonable service for their own selfish reasons (cheaper to wait and do nothing and then when the new road is built there will be no problem) and PUT LIVES AT RISK over an extended period.
If a farmer leaves mud on a road and this causes someone to crash and die, then the farmer is liable to prosecution. Someone from Transerv should be prosecuted over this.
I'm sorry "Through", Whilst I appreciate your situation, there is no way that the section of road in question can be taken at 60 mph. nor should it, and I can show sections of our Motorways that should not be taken at 60mph, nor should they.
The point I was trying to make is simply that you should drive according to conditions.
There are far more journeys made down that road without incident than with, because the majority of drivers drive accordingly.
Please - I'm not saying you do or don't - nor being disrespectfull.
I have spent my life on the road - both in haulage, and many years as an AA Patrol, and Patrol Force Manager, and before that as an wholetime Fireman.
And was just making a point.
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