What Argyll’s MSP Jim Mather has welcomed as a triumph for public opinion is just that. Transport Scotland has finally given way on the issue of the wooden roadside barriers that allegedly caused such dreadful injuries to people whose vehicles crashed into them. For Argyll has been graphic on such injuries in past reports to underline just how appallingly dangerous these barriers were. We have no need now to repeat or add to that.

Transport Scotland has announced that it is taking steps to replace these recently erected wooden barriers which, in earlier installations, were responsible for several fatal accidents in the 1970s and 1980s.

Mr Mather congratulates those concerned members of the public who very actively campaigned against the fences. This included:

• medical practitioners and paramedics – who had reason to know at first hand just how awful were the injuries the fences had caused before
• local councillors like Donnie MacMillan who also knew what had happened last time around
• people whose relatives and friends had suffered in the broken jaws of these structures
• lawyers like Graeme Pagan who, as Procurator Fiscal in OBan, had presided over earlier fatalities
• all of the local press
• countless letter writers who could not believe that evidence and obvious common sense could be so lightly set aside
• For Argyll

Sadly, there have been accidents at these fences in their current incarnation – including a particularly bad fatality on the A83 at Ardgartan on upper Loch Long in the Autumn of 2008. At this stage it is not known whether an inquest has yet been held in this case or, if so, what the pathologists’s conclusions were about the role of the barrier in the outcome.

In any case, it will be hard for the family of the dead man concerned to see Transport Scotland’s action taken so late, when it could have been effected so much earlier. Even worse is the possibility that between now and the removal of the fences there may be other accidents in which they may be thought to have inflicted yet more serious injuries and fatalities.

Transport Scotland should do what it takes to get all of these wooden barriers removed without delay. They are to be replaced by wire mesh fencing.

Mr Mather, an energetic campaigner on this issue himself, says: ‘This is an excellent example of a successful and measured campaign by members of the public who were  genuinely concerned at the re-appearance of a form of wooden barrier similar to those which had been responsible for several fatal accidents around thirty years ago in Argyll. At that time it was only after a sustained campaign involving a great deal of public involvement that the roads authorities were persuaded to remove the wooden roadside barriers throughout Argyll.

‘When a similar type of barrier was recently erected at Cromalt, close to Inveraray and on the seaward side of the trunk road between Ardgartan and Arrochar,  strong representations were made to the Trunk Road Authority. Among  those most concerned were relatives of those who lost their lives in earlier accidents and their campaign was successfully co-ordinated by retired lawyer Graeme Pagan, who was Procurator Fiscal in Oban when the dangers of the original wooden barriers was first identified.

‘I was happy to be associated with the action to remove those new barriers and to help  bring the previous history of the matter to the attention of the Minister and the Trunk Roads Authority.

‘I am relieved and encouraged at the success of this campaign. We are all rightly concerned when we see actions being taken that we perceive to be misguided or misinformed. It is good to see that such a campaign can bring forward the right result and I congratulate all those involved, both those who campaigned and the authorities who have responded,  for their work on this’.

Update: The photograph above, by Rebecca Martin, was taken on 15th January and shows the Transport Scotland wooden barrier at Cromalt, south of Inveraray, with demolition already begun.

The cross pieces – which were largely responsible for the horrific injuries inflicted on people in cars crashing into the barriers – have been removed and removed so swiftly that the nails that held them to the uprights have been left bare ended. These are now a secondary danger and mainly to the pedestrians the barriers were said to have been constructed to protect.