As a general news reporter, which is one that does not specialise in a particular type of news such as politics, business or crime, you are expected to spend usually one day a week covering calls.

This involves contacting various emergency services, such as the fire service or the police, about incidents as well as monitoring social media to see if there are any alerts for road collisions on our patch.

Thursday was the deadline day for the Ross-shire Journal and I was covering calls. An incident cropped up on Traffic Scotland’s Twitter feed that vehicles were restricted on the A9 near Tore.

It turned out that it was as a result of a five-vehicle collision so I put something online and got a request into the police for a comment hoping that they would come back with something in time for the deadline of next day’s paper.

And, as I did not have a photo of the incident, I had to use this generic file shot relating to the location for the online version of the article.

Luckily the police did produce a statement and I managed to get this in the next day’s paper. In this instance no one was seriously injured but it could easily have been a lot worse.

Collision on the A9 at Tore

POLICE and emergency services were called to the Black Isle following a five-vehicle collision. 

The crash was at the Tore roundabout and the alarm was raised around 6.30am yesterday.

Traffic on the A9 was restricted in both directions and a Police Scotland spokeswoman said: “Around 6.30am on Thursday, January 12, officers were called to reports of a crash involving five vehicles on the A9 near the Tore roundabout. 

“Emergency services attended and closed the road while recovery was arranged. The road reopened around 8.30am.” 

It is understood no one was seriously injured as a result of the incident.

A Traffic Scotland spokesman said: “The northbound carriageway is currently restricted due to a collision. Police are in attendance. Take care on approach.” 

Once the carriageway was fully open in both directions traffic was still busy but slowly returning to normal.

From the Ross-shire Journal on Friday, January 13, 2023.