A Tayside road policing inspector has said he believes dualling the A9 would reduce the number of the fatalities on the route.
In February the Scottish Government said the £3 billion project to dual the section between Perth and Inverness would not be completed by 2025.
The news came after 13 people were killed last year in eight road traffic collisions on the 112-mile stretch of the A9.
At a council committee this week Bailie Chris Ahern asked a local roads policing inspector if dualling the A9 would help reduce accidents and the number of fatalities.
The Perth City Centre Conservative councillor raised the issue during a presentation on road safety at Perth and Kinross Council's Housing and Social Wellbeing Committee on Wednesday, March 15.
Inspector Greg Burns of Tayside's Road Policing Unit said: "Certainly from the [2022] stats there's not been any on the dual carriageway section. We're still going to have drivers that have lapses in concentration, make mistakes and have a collision. Can I forecast if they are going to have a fatality? I can't unfortunately.
"But my own personal opinion is if we had a dual carriageway section all the way up it would certainly reduce the likelihood of fatalities there."
Convener SNP councillor Tom McEwan told Bailie Ahern: "I agree with you completely. The dualling of the A9 is a hugely important infrastructure project in Perth and Kinross and Highland that needs to be expedited as soon as resources make that possible."
Highland Perthshire Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) station commander Joe Fitzpatrick said frustration caused by a vehicle stuck behind something on a single carriageway section was a cause of accidents.
He said: "Typically on the A9 accidents are happening because people are tired, they're also perhaps not used to driving on that side of the road.
"Also a lot of the issues arrive when we get to the single carriageway and there's unsafe overtaking manoeuvres because people are getting frustrated."
In October 2014 an increased speed limit of 50 mph for HGVs came into force on single carriageway sections of the A9 between Perth and Inverness.
Mr Fitzpatrick told councillors the trial had been a success.
He said: "The trial evaulation is proving it's been a success. It's one of these things where - ironically - increasing a vehicle's speed has improved safety."
Mr Fitzpatrick said educating drivers was key and was done in conjunction with Police Scotland.
He explained: "If we can tackle the education side of things and improve people's perception of the dangers of being on the road and the contribution they can make to improving safety that's half the battle."
An issue was also raised concerning foreign drivers who have been involved in fatal collisions on the road.
Inspector Greg Burns of Tayside's Road Policing Unit said: "We've had three foreign driver fatalities in 2022. There's a lot of work ongoing just now with the Scottish Government, Road Safety Scotland and hire car companies to mitigate this."
He added: "We've increased daily patrols and put dedicated patrols on there between 7am and 8pm based on KSI (Killed and Seriously Injured) data. This is when our accidents are happening and for three of our fatalities which were foreign drivers it's down to either falling asleep or being confused by the roadway and there is work ongoing on that with the Scottish Government and Road Safety Scotland to try and mitigate that and get the message out there."
Between October 2022 and the end of January 2023 Police Scotland stopped 1166 cars on the A9.
Insp Burns added: "Chances are if you drive between Perth and Inverness you will see at least two/three patrol cars on there which is providing reassurance and high visibility patrol."
Earlier this month councillors on neighbouring Highland Council passed a motion deploring the delays to dualling the A9 and called it a "betrayal to the Highlands".
The Highland Council motion - passed on March 9 - called on transport minister Jenny Gilruth to "immediately" publish a revised timetable for the completed works.
The motion read: “The horrendous spate of accidents and resultant fatalities on the single carriageway sections of the A9 has brought misery to families from across the country and beyond our council area.”
