A spate of deaths on Scotland's most dangerous road has prompted the introduction of average speed cameras at a cost of £2.5 million, the transport minister has announced.
The cameras will be installed on the A9 between Dunblane and Inverness, and are expected to be fully operational by next summer, Keith Brown said.
In the meantime, police have assured road safety campaigners that increased patrols will be in force to influence behaviour, encourage better driving and enforce the law.
Pressure to improve safety on the A9 has intensified in recent weeks following the death of three people, including a woman and her young daughter, in a two-car crash on the A9 near Kingussie in the Highlands on July 9.
Abigail Houston, 42, and seven-year-old Mia, from Edinburgh, died in the crash which also claimed the life of Dr Mohammad Ali Hayajneh from Duisberg in Germany.
The Scottish Government has pledged to dual the A9 in the long term, but Mr Brown said the average speed cameras should lead to more immediate improvements.
He said: "While the Scottish Government believes that dualling will be the long-term solution to the safety issues on the A9 - we are the first administration committed to making the road dual carriageway all the way from Perth to Inverness a reality - we also want to make the immediate improvements that will bring positive changes to driver behaviour.
"Average speed cameras systems have a proven track record of reducing casualties and excessive speed, and their high visibility leads to better compliance of the speed limit.
"We hope to see the first of the cameras introduced early next year and expect the system to be fully operational in the summer of 2014."
The A9 system will be the second in Scotland. The first was installed on the A77 in Ayrshire between Bogend Toll and Ardwell Bay in 2005.
Since then, it has delivered a 46% reduction in fatal accidents and 35% reduction in serious accidents, according to Transport Scotland.
Police Scotland head of road policing Superintendent Iain Murray said: "There is no doubt that this announcement will help to reduce the concerns of a great many people who have made their concerns about safety on the road known in recent days, however it is clear that the introduction of the system will take some time.
"I would, therefore, wish to reassure all road users that in the meantime the Trunk Roads Patrol Group will continue to provide a higher level of patrols on the A9, as well as other strategic routes in Scotland, to influence road user behaviour, encourage better driving and enforce legislation when required."
The system will operate on the 136-mile stretch of the A9 just north of Keir roundabout in Dunblane to just south of Raigmore interchange in Inverness.
It is expected to cost government agency Transport Scotland about £2.5 million.
The Association of Scottish Police Superintendents (Asps) has welcomed the announcement.
Asps president Chief Superintendent David O'Connor said: "I welcome any reasonable measures that will help reduce the number of people killed and seriously injured on our roads, and in particular the A9.
"Driver behaviour is one part of the problem and the introduction of average speed cameras should help drivers focus on this aspect of driving.
"This is good news and another step towards making the A9 safer and I welcome the Scottish Government multi-agency approach to addressing this serious problem."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article