A driver died yesterday when his car left the notorious A82 Inverness-Glasgow road and went down an embankment.
The vehicle ploughed into trees between Corran Ferry and Fort William about four miles south of the town about 1.15pm.
The driver was alone in the car and police said no other vehicles were involved in the accident.
The busy trunk road was closed for more than five hours.
Initially, no diversions were put in place and long tailbacks developed both north and south of the crash scene. Later, many drivers tried to detour via the Corran Ferry, causing serious congestion on the A861 around Loch Linnhe and Loch Eil, much of which is single track with passing places.
Diversions were later put in place via Perth – adding more than 160 miles to the journey for both north and southbound traffic.
A police spokesman said: “Emergency services were called to a serious road traffic collision involving a car on the A82 approximately four miles south of Fort William.
“The man driving the car received serious injuries and has sadly died as a result of the collision.”
He added that the road was closed to traffic in both directions between Fort William and Corran Ferry.
A fire service spokeswoman said two appliances from Fort William went to the scene, and one remained there until almost 5pm.
She said: “The crew used various cutting equipment to extricate the person from the vehicle.”
Local people are now calling for Transport Scotland to carry out investigations into why the stretch of road has become an accident blackspot.
In December, a man and a woman suffered serious injuries when their car left the road near yesterday’s crash site at Corrychurrachan. In September, a 65-year-old woman was seriously injured in a two-vehicle crash there, and in July, a motorcyclist died after a two-vehicle crash just south of Corran Ferry.