Husband whose wife died in killer A9 crash tells of horror over 'years long' wait for road upgrade

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A grief-stricken husband who lost his wife, mother-in-law and brother-in-law in a crash on the killer A9 has told of his horror that it could be years before the road is upgraded.Katie Bastion-Strong, 46, her brother Jared Bastion, 45, and mum Mary-Lou Mauch, 75, were touring Scotland to check out filming sites for Outlander when their car crashed head-on into a lorry last August.Katie’s husband Chris Strong said the tragedy – put down to road ­conditions – left seven children ­without a parent.He said: “More can be done to make that road safer and they have to do it.

My daughters have lost their mum, Jared’s four children have lost their dad. This has to stop before more families’ lives are ruined.”The Scottish Government has said they cannot guarantee to meet their promise to dual 70 miles of the A9 between Perth and ­Inverness by 2025.Chris’s family are three out of the 17 people killed on the road in the past year – the most lethal 12 months for the A9 in 15 years.The family had been fans of the hit TV show Outlander and ­travelled to the Highlands from Illinois in the US to see where it was set.Katie, who worked for the American College of Surgeons, was driving a rental car on the A9 at Ralia, near ­Newtonmore, Inverness-shire, when she turned a corner and ­hit the lorry.Her brother and mum were killed instantly, while she was taken to hospital, where she died three days later.Hours before the tragedy, Jared had shared a video of the trip on social media and wrote they had been “white knuckle driving” around the Isle of Skye on a single carriageway road with “traffic going both ways”.Chris, 45, flew over to ­Scotland as soon as he could and said he was shocked by the road’s condition.He said: “I went to the site of