An Aberdeenshire pensioner says she is “living on her nerves” after 23 crashes beside her home in just over a year.
Seventy-four year old Patricia Rettie has stayed beside a notorious bend on the A96 Aberdeen-Inverness road for more than 20 years.
And several vehicles have ploughed into her property.
She now fears there could be a fatality unless action is taken.
Yesterday, two people were taken to hospital with minor injuries after a Volkswagen went off the road at the spot at Bainshole, near Huntly, and overturned in a field.
The accident happened around 4.20pm and police said two people were taken to Huntly’s Jubilee Hospital.
Mrs Rettie said after the latest crash: “We had 18 accidents here last year and that is the fifth one that we know of this year.
“We live in our nerves here. I’m 74 and I dread cars coming around that corner.
“There was anti-skid on that surface for quite a few years I believe, but they skimmed the road to resurface it and never put any anti-skid back on. I’ve been here 23 years and this last two years is the worst we have had.
“The front wall has had to be repaired three times. The front door is a new door, the whole thing had to be put in and the wall again had to be done.
“The wall at the side of the house has been taken down, the gate has been taken down.
“I dread the day that one actually comes through the wall.”
Mrs Rettie said signs had been put up recently warning motorists of the risk of skidding on the bend.
Mrs Rettie said her family were fortunate not to have been killed during a clean-up outside the house after the recent floods.
“My family were out clearing the stones and rubble and things.
“I called them in for something to eat, just after they came in a car skidded up the front of the house. My family could’ve been killed.
“There’s a bad camber on that road and most people think it’s a big, wide corner and a lot of people take it too quickly.
“I don’t know if we need a speed restriction on these corners.
“It’s a 60mph to 70mph road but if they do over 60mph that corner becomes really dangerous.
“I know most of them say they feel the back of their car go and of course they put the brakes on and that’s it. Away it goes.”
Mrs Rettie’s 44-year-old son Peter lives next door.
He said the family owned land on either side of the road and would be happy if it could be rerouted to remove the bend.
Mr Rettie said: “What my main worry is, is not people skidding, it’s if somebody dies there.
“Every time we go out to a crash our first reaction is ‘are they alive?’.
“We’re just really lucky that we haven’t had a death there.”