WITNESSES have described the moment a pick-up truck and a car collided on the A9, causing a fireball that left four dead, including a two-year-old boy.
The accident was one of several in a weekend of carnage on Scotland's roads that claimed six lives.
Ben Hayes, 34, was travelling north on the A9 when he saw the pick-up swerving near the Slochd summit north of Aviemore on Saturday afternoon.
He said the southbound pick-up moved across the carriageway slowly, "as if the driver had fallen asleep".
"It hit the car behind us head-on," he said. "I saw it in the mirror. It burst into flames. It didn't look like anybody would be walking away from it."
Another witness added: "It is a miracle anyone survived. Both vehicles were welded together by the heat. It was impossible to tell what make of pick-up truck was involved.
"It ended up on top of the Volvo. They were both white, burnt-out shells."
Northern Constabulary said yesterday it may take several days to identify the victims, and DNA or dental checks might be needed.
Another woman and a four-year-old girl who were in the car were pulled to safety by passers-by and taken to Raigmore Hospital in Inverness.
The occupants of the Volvo were believed to be Dutch. The survivors' conditions were last night described as stable. A number of dogs in the pick-up truck also died, police said.
An hour after the fatal A9 fireball, an 83-year-old woman died after crashing near Alcaig, in the Black Isle.
Adding to the weekend's road carnage, a man was killed and several others injured in a crash on the A82 at Luss near Loch Lomond around 6:20am yesterday. The man who died was in a people carrier which had eight people on board.
Saturday's crash on the A9 brings the death toll on the 112-mile Perth-Inverness road to ten in just seven weeks as government officials prepare their framework for improving the nation's road infrastructure.
The accident happened just south of a stretch of dual carriageway. Campaigners say that dualling the entire route – which saw 82 fatalities between 2000 and 2004 – would save dozens of lives. Just 26 per cent of the A9 is currently dual carriageway.
Murdo Fraser, MSP, deputy Scottish Conservative leader, said statistics showed accidents were four times more likely on stretches of the A9 that were single carriageway.
He said: "The death toll continues to mount on Scotland's most dangerous trunk road. It is clear that, while dualling the road will never eliminate serious or fatal accidents altogether, it could substantially reduce them."
The SNP pledged to dual the entire A9 after it was elected to power last May.
A Scottish Government spokesman said its Strategic Transport Projects Review report shortly to ministers with options for Scotland's roads network, including the dualling of the A9.
• A nine-year-old boy from Glasgow was in a critical condition in hospital last night after a crash on the A81 Glasgow to Callander road near Ballat Crossroads at about 2:30pm yesterday. Three other people, including his mother, were injured in the crash, which involved a Volvo estate and a Vauxhall Corsa.
The full article contains 553 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
