A MOTORCYCLIST died and his female pillion passenger was seriously injured when their bike and a car crashed on the A9.
Nigel Mills, 55, from Orkney, was killed while the other person on the motorbike was seriously injured and was taken to Raigmore Hospital in Inverness for treatment.
The pair were heading south on the Thurso-Inverness stretch of the notorious road in Easter Ross when the accident happened on Thursday night.
Mr Mills was riding a Kawasaki KLZ 1000. The crash happened near the Catalina junction, not far from Alness. The driver of the car is believed to have escaped injury.
A police spokesman said Mr Mills “sustained fatal injuries as a result of the collision”. His female passenger was taken to Raigmore Hospital in Inverness by ambulance after suffering “serious injuries”.
The road was closed for more than six hours while officers from the Dingwall road policing unit carried out investigations at the crash site.
A diversion was put in place via the B817 Alness-Evanton road.
Police are appealing to anyone with information on the crash, which happened shortly before 9pm on Thursday, to contact them.
Caithness, Sutherland and Ross SNP MSP Rob Gibson said last night: “I’m concerned when any accident happens. It is awful for the victims and for the people involved and I would want to make sure lessons are learned from this.
“I’m so sorry for the victims and am thinking about them and their families.”
The crash happened just 10 minutes before a TV documentary was screened about life and death on the A9. The programme largely focused on the stretch of road between Scrabster in Caithness and Dunblane south of Perth, which has become notorious for the high number of serious accidents along its length.
Thursday night’s crash happened close to where five people were trapped in the wreckage of a two-car crash in December.
Firefighters used cutting gear to remove a woman from her car. She was taken to Raigmore Hospital with serious injuries.
The other four people were helped from the vehicles suffering from minor injures.