Road accident rates for sections on A9, A96 and A82: EIR release

Information requested

One often hears statements that the A9 is the most dangerous road in Scotland. Is it? When people refer to the A9 they invariably mean the length between Dunblane and Inverness rather than the section to Thurso - do they want that dualled as well?

I would much prefer driving between Perth and Inverness on the A9 than on the A96 or the A82. The average speed cameras were effective at making it a much more civilised and safe drive, in my opinion.

Do you have statistics on accident rates per mile on trunk roads together with traffic flow rates? Let's say A9 Dunblane-Inverness, A96, and A82. From 2020, please. Can you provide it on Excel, please?

Response

I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested in the format you asked for - please see Annex's A and B.

Accident rates are calculated annually as part of Transport Scotland’s Annual Road Safety review based on the previous 3 full years of data—e.g. 2025 data calculates the accident rate from accident data in 2022 to 2024.

The accident rate is given in collisions per million vehicle kilometres and is calculated by dividing the number of accidents by the total distance travelled by vehicles in millions of kilometres and multiplying by one million. The data shows the accident rate for sections on the A9, A96 and A82. To facilitate understanding of the data, eastings and northings have been provided, as a guide, to the start location of each link. Links are numbered ascending along the route, usually South to North or East to West and can contain multiple road types within a link. These are separated within the results tables.

Under the terms of the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs (information not held), Transport Scotland is not required to provide information which it does not have. Transport Scotland does not have the information you have requested because we do not hold the data in the format requested from 2020.

This exception is subject to the 'public interest test'. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exception. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exception. While we recognise that there may be some public interest in information about accident rates per mile and traffic flow rates, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

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EIR 202500478493 - Information Released - Annex A

File type

Excel document

File size

1.1 MB

EIR 202500478493 - Information Released - Annex B

File type

Excel document

File size

45.3 kB