Spate of accidents in Caithness this morning – but A9 reopen
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A number of accidents have taken place in Caithness this morning. It is believed there could be at least 12 and involve HGVs as well as cars.
A tanker was said to be off the road at Westerdale while the Halkirk to Houstry road was closed due to accidents involving several cars.
The A9 was blocked at Sordale earlier this morning believed to be due to a jack-knifed lorry and there were two accidents at Achalone.
Motorists have been using the Glengolly/Halkirk route as a diversion to get south.
It is understood extra police are being requested from Sutherland to help with the situation.
Earlier, we reported that the A9 near Thurso has been closed due to an accident.
The incident occurred about one mile from Thurso at the Weydale Road junction.
The road was closed but has since been reopened in both directions. Traffic Scotland said the incident was cleared at 11.25am.
Meanwhile, Caithness Roads Recovery has had a huge response to its posts on icy roads across the county.
Co-founder Iain Gregory said: "We had in excess of 70,000 page reads in 48 hours. It is clear that public concern is very great indeed."
He added: "We cannot comment on the cause of any particular accident, as these matters may be under investigation, but we certainly can comment on the fact that roads across Caithness are clearly extremely dangerous due to ice. The general public have made it abundantly clear that they want to know why this is the case, and what measures are being taken to ensure county-wide gritting takes place – lives are at risk.
"It does not really matter what policies may be in place. The roads must be treated county-wide – people have to get to work, the emergency services have to be able to get to incidents, care workers must be able to reach clients' homes, and life cannot just come to a halt every time it freezes. It certainly doesn't in Inverness."
