Down again – the bollard with a season ticket to the repair shop

I’m beginning to realise that this concrete and steel reinforced bollard is no match for the delivery lorries to the small row of shops nearby, and my first thought that it was never repaired was wrong too.

Far from just lying broken, it looks as if this poor bollard is just victimised, and doesn’t survive long before the lorries gently ‘persuade’ it to go away.

I used to think it was just neglected, but after paying closer attention and taking the odd pic, it seems this one just enjoys the repair cycle, and only lasts a few weeks after each repair, before it throws itself under another lorry.

One of my route changes brought me here last night, although I had already noticed this guy had been beaten up and left lying at an angle last week.

Bollard Again

Last time:

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My past is being erased – 01

One of the sad things I remember my mother saying one day was something along the lines of “I’m done. There’s nothing left in this world that I recognise“.

It was an understandable outburst from anyone who lived through the Glasgow of the 1960s and saw how the streets that they once saw teeming with life and people had become little more than vast empty spaces. The family home (and grandfather’s newsagent’s shop) was gone, having been razed to make way for London Rd Police Station.

While we may now reside in area where that’s unlikely to be repeated, I doubt I could find any shops in the city centre that mattered to me, let alone my parents. This was brought home some years ago when I decided to go collect some pics of ‘old surviving shops’ in the city (identified from books that were not that old), only to find that 90% had gone, making the task a quick one, and with little to show for the effort.

This has also been brought home to me recently, by chance, as I happened to trip over some places that I once saw frequently.

I happened to look across Baillieston Cross last week, not somewhere I see often since I was priced off the road.

It took a moment for the scene to sink in, and I realised that the road I once travelled on a daily basis to get to Coatbridge was GONE!

It was the area now being filled in behind the comes on the left.

Baillieston Cross

I was obliged to travel that way to get to school (actually schools since I had to transfer after 4 years), unless I had to use the train.

In more recent years I’ve killed the odd spare hour by taking a walk to Bargeddie – at least I can still do that.

Here’s a closer look at the ‘erasure’ of part of my past, or infill of the former road.

Baillieston Coatbridge Rd dead

However, there is at least good reason for the change: M8 Missing Link Opens

Seeing this gave me a feeling something like nails being hammered into my coffin.

I’ll have to dig out some previous pics I collected a while ago.

These came from an earlier, but similar ‘shock’ – when I discovered not one, but BOTH of the schools I had attended in Coatbridge had been demolished.

The first I was prepared for (a few years ago), and actually made the trip to take a look after I couldn’t find it on Google Earth, and went to see why.

The second was more of a shock, as I had no idea it had just been demolished not long before I made the trip last year, and actually thought I had got off the train at the wrong station!

I hadn’t, and count myself lucky to have gone back in earlier days just for some pics – on film, which indicates how long ago that was.

Even concrete doesn’t deter bad drivers

This is really just a bit of fun, purely because I can.

I pass this spot occasionally, and it’s interesting to see how often the concrete posts installed to deter parking on the pavement in front of the shops are damaged. They eventually get repaired/replaced, but given the narrowness of the road, it’s hard to see why someone doesn’t have the road widened, as there is more than enough pavement to do so, and not even reduce the space needed for a wide footpath. As it is, there is no way for lorries delivering to the shops to do so without causing problems. The road in front of the shops (where you can see a parked car) really only has practical space for one car to pass along at a time. Cars turning into it from the junction have to back out if there is one coming towards them. Residents’ cars line the road to the left, just out of sight.

Broken post

But, I guess it is cheaper to raise a lot of small repair budgets, and that a road widening project would never be approved in the anti-car environment we enjoy living in today, even if the total cost might be less in the long run.

These posts used to be all of the short variety seen in the central part, but I guess someone had a moment of inspiration and realised that these are invisible from the driver’s seat, and cause collisions, hence the taller ones that appeared recently.

But, as can be seen, one of those did not last long before it was modified, and presumably the vehicle concerned suffered too.

Repaired

So, another repair, and I spotted the fix a couple of months later, so have no idea how long it took to happen, or how long it has lasted.

It’s always been the same here.

Yet it would make life so much better for everyone (and not encroach on pedestrian space) if they lost that big broad corner, and widened the road, only by a couple of feet, but it would be enough to let cars pass in either direction, instead of having to perform a silly (and let’s face it, dangerous) dance, reversing at the corner if they happen to be meeting face-to-face.

Although not seen in these pics, the shop at the front sets out tables and chairs for its customers, such is the space available – and would still be there after the suggested widening.

I don’t usually manage to have one of these before and after (repair) pic sets, so since I had this one, I had to use it.

Proposed Inquiries into Deaths (Scotland) Bill introduced

It’s been a while since I referred to a Recommendation that Scottish families get access to road death reports.

Briefly, there is currently no guarantee that families get access to such reports, and although rectified, there have been cases of them being charged for such reports, rather than just supplied with them as a matter of procedure. This is done abroad.

A public consultation on a members’ bill which aims to radically overhaul Scotland’s Fatal Accident Inquiry (FAI) system has now been announced

The MP behind this said the current system for investigating sudden and accidental deaths was “not fit for purpose”.

Speaking ahead of the launch of the consultation on her Inquiries into Deaths (Scotland) Bill, Patricia Ferguson said:

“Unfortunately I have witnessed first-hand the devastation caused to families following the death of a loved one by the woeful system we have in place to carry out a fatal accident inquiry.

“After suffering the trauma and heartache of losing a family member in sudden or unexplained circumstances it surely should not be too much to ask that the process for investigating this death does not cause further agony and grief.

“As my consultation highlights, there are many families who have had to fight the system – sometimes for many years – just to be granted the right for an FAI to be heard.

“I hope that through this consultation, we will create the foundations for a new system which will address these serious issues and provide a mechanism which allows families to understand what happened, why it happened and feel reassured that provisions are being made to prevent it happening again to someone else.”

The consultation will run until November 22, 2013.

The Scottish government said it was committed to bringing forward its own bill to implement the recommendations of Lord Cullen’s Review of the Fatal Accident Inquiry Legislation “within the lifetime of this Parliament“. A spokeswoman said: “Some of these recommendations were addressed to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and have already been implemented, including the establishment of a Scottish Fatalities Investigation Unit.”

Via Scotland Fatal Accident Inquiry overhaul consultation starts

The proposal can be seen here:

Proposed Inquiries into Deaths (Scotland) Bill – Parliamentary Business :  Scottish Parliament

 

Parents of dead teenager charged £500 for copy of police accident report

Please see the ‘Update’ below, which confirms this charge was refunded together with a “sincere and unreserved apology”.

I wrote on the subject of family’s access to accident reports a while ago (September 2012):

It seems that such information releases are already considered the norm in Europe, so there should not really be any problem in having the same service provided here:

Vikki Long, a researcher in the School of Law at Dundee who compiled the report, said: “It is very encouraging to learn that legal procedures and practices exist in several European countries that could have a positive influence on the development of Scots law in relation to access to information following a fatal road collision.

“If these were adopted in Scotland it would reduce some of the anguish experienced by those bereaved by road death.”

The first copy of these findings have been presented to Jenny Marra, MSP for North East Scotland.

From Crash reports publication call

No progress?

It would seem that there has been no significant progress, or even recognition of the report.

While I do not have access to the full details of the following story, and cannot comment fairly either way, it would seem on face value that Northern Constabulary has no knowledge of the potential damage its attempt to weasel its way out of simply providing the information requested under Freedom of Information (Scotland) could do, for the nominal charge that allows, if it really needs money that badly:

The grieving parents of a teenager killed in a crash in Caithness say they are disgusted they have had to pay for a copy of a police report into the death of their son.

Christopher Durrand’s family have now made an official complaint after they were charged more than £500 for the document.

Northern Constabulary, the force responsible, said it was following national guidelines.

In February 2012 the 17-year-old was killed when his car hit a tree on the B876 at Seater Bridge near Wick.

Mr Durrand’s parents initially assumed they would be able to use special legislation relating to Freedom of Information to access the report for free.

Northern Constabulary said however that that ACPOS — the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland charges for this information — and the cost would be substantial.

The family are now fighting for a refund as politicians call for the rules to be reviewed.

Via Parents of Christopher Durrand charged £500 for copy of crash report | Highlands & Islands | News | STV

Northern Constabulary said it would not be appropriate to comment on the matter.

Update

A family that was forced to pay £500 to view a police report into the death of their son has received a refund.

Northern Constabulary – which originally said it was following national guidelines – told the family of Christopher Durrand the report into their son’s death could not be obtained under Freedom of Information legislation and they would have to fork out hundreds of pounds to view the document.

In February 2012 the 17-year-old was killed when his car hit a tree on the B876 at Seater Bridge near Wick.

The force’s acting chief constable has now accepted the decision to bill the family was “inappropriate and insensitive”.

Acting chief constable Andy Cowie said the force had issued an “a sincere and unreserved apology”.

Caithness Sutherland and Ross MSP Rob Gibson contacted the force on behalf of the family.

In a response to the MSP Mr Cowie decided that asking for a fee was “inappropriate and insensitive”.

Via Police issue apology over £500 bill to family of dead teenager | Highlands & Islands | News | STV

The report goes on to state that the matter has been raised with the Justice Secretary, in the hope that such a scenario is not repeated.

Recommendation that Scottish families get access to road death reports

I happened to see a news item that touched on events in my past, and I thought it might be worthwhile giving it a little more publicity, lest it affect anyone else more directly, or they wished to support the proposal.

My own experience was far too long ago to be affected by this, but it was concerned with a fatal road accident, and although I was very young at the time, I was more than aware that my elders were more than mystified by the case, as the driver who caused the accident and fatality had been drinking, but as far as I know, no action whatsoever was taken against him. There was no question that he was 100% at fault, having ignored a red light at a city centre road junction, and rammed another car off the road as a result.

Remarkably, three other occupants in the rammed car walked away uninjured – the fourth lay in coma in Glasgow’s Victoria Infirmary for a week, kept alive by machines and tubes… until the doctors delivered the news that there was no hope, and that the machines were in reality merely keeping a dead body functioning – and that this would end within a few minutes of their being turned off.

With no action taken against the man who caused the death, I know my elders were shattered by their unexplained loss, and the lack of action against him, as he was clearly guilty of a number of offences.

They never recovered from the shock. I was probably lucky enough to have been young enough to know something terrible had happened, but still not old enough to realise exactly what – and had been shielded from the worst by the rest of the family, who decided I would not be allowed to enter the intensive care room. Those who did visit found it hard to come to terms with what they saw, and accept the result, as there was not a single mark resulting from the crash, although it had ultimately been fatal.

It seems that the lack of information was, and still is the norm in such cases, and that families/relatives are not properly informed after such events, as I see a recent study has recommended that the families of Scottish road death victims be given access to the various reports produced in relation to the accident investigation:

It suggests granting access to investigation reports would help families through the grieving process.

At present there is no formal procedure to allow families access to police reports on collisions.

The study has recommended the creation of an independent body to carry out in-depth safety investigations into all fatal road collisions alongside the police, similar to that which exists in Finland.

Lessons from Europe

The new organisation would provide a legal right of access to the police report and associated documents on completion of the investigation or on conclusion of criminal proceedings.

It seems that such information releases are already considered the norm in Europe, so there should not really be any problem in having the same service provided here:

Vikki Long, a researcher in the School of Law at Dundee who compiled the report, said: “It is very encouraging to learn that legal procedures and practices exist in several European countries that could have a positive influence on the development of Scots law in relation to access to information following a fatal road collision.

“If these were adopted in Scotland it would reduce some of the anguish experienced by those bereaved by road death.”

The first copy of these findings have been presented to Jenny Marra, MSP for North East Scotland.

From Crash reports publication call

Irresponsible Assistant Chief Constable Angela Wilson blames drivers for A9 danger

Regrettably, I don’t get many opportunities to travel the A9. The occasional jolly to Inverness is interspersed with jaunts to Pitlochry, and maybe even the Pitlochry Festival Theatre if I’m lucky.

That means I don’t know the road well enough to have it memorised, nor have I ever encountered any bad driving, either during or at times other than the holiday/tourist season – at least, not any worse than encountered anywhere else around the country. To be honest, the changing scenery and conditions means I have always found it to be quite an enjoyable drive, and not deserving of the reputation painted by the media.

I mention this only because there are roads I have travelled on regularly – and given the abysmal ‘production-line’ driver training on offer nowadays, which I would suggest is geared towards training candidates how to pass the driving test, rather than how to drive – which surprise me not to have piles of unwary drivers’ cars piled up by the roadside.

As we approach the end of 2011, I find it appalling and bordering on the incompetent and irresponsible that anyone holding a position of authority with respect to road safety would be so ignorant to utter the words “There’s no such thing as a dangerous roads… ”

It’s such an irresponsible statement, if I was in a position to do so, I would call for their immediate resignation.

This used to be a handy phrase to spout some years ago, and transfer responsibility for road safety from an authority to the individual drivers, and those who died in accidents and could not reply, but is simply not acceptable in 2011. It comes from the same mindset that claims “She was asking for it” as some sort of acceptable defence for rape.

It is now known as fact, rather than conjecture, that there are numerous contributions to accidents and fatalities on roads, especially A-roads, built in the days when no-one had any idea that they were actually building-in hazards as they just followed the lie of the land when building roads and junctions.

There are also many modern hazards added to them, and which local authorities and the police to not want to be held responsible for. Many councils no longer trim hedges, so bends which once had visibility are now blind. Signs are obscured, hidden, dirty, inappropriate, and lacking in maintenance. Road markings are worn away and not repainted. Road verges are repaired with inferior material, leading to soft verges, yet lorry axles loads are increased. Junctions are now badly sited as traffic volumes increase, and vehicles travel at speeds faster than horse-carts, requiring to changed to slip roads and over or underpasses, or other safer alternative.

Assistant chief constable Angela Wilson, of Tayside Police, said: “In my professional view it’s not a dangerous road at all.

“There’s no such thing as a dangerous road. It’s the drivers that don’t drive to the conditions of the road. Drivers just do not give it the respect it needs.

“I’m really glad of the announcement there are going to be road improvements because that will help but actually drivers themselves are the people that need to change their behaviour.”

via Bad drivers blamed for A9’s reputation as Scotland’s ‘deadliest’ road | Dundee and Tayside | STV News.

If Assistant Chief Constable Angela Wilson, of Tayside Police, does not change her views and attitudes, then Tayside Police should be looking for someone better suited to the post.

It is fortuitous that the Scottish Government has pledged to dual the entire stretch between Perth and Inverness by 2025 – no-one looking after the traffic on the road would appear to be going to do anything to help improve its safety.

Background reading

For further information on roads see:

EuroRAP :: European Road Assessment Programme :: Safer Roads Save Lives

The BBC’s Today programme reviewed this assessment:

BBC – Radio 4 – Today – Britain’s Most Dangerous Roads

Britain’s Most Dangerous Roads

The biggest study ever undertaken on the safety of Europe’s roads has identified the most dangerous major road in Britain as the A889 near Dalwhinnie in the Scottish Highlands.

Following 18 months of work, the AA-led EuroRAP (European Road Assessment Programme) has given safety ‘star ratings’ to more than 800 A or trunk UK roads, and a further 2,000 in three other countries – the Netherlands, Sweden and Spain.

The league tables are intended to allow highways authorities and engineers to compare similar roads and identify the hidden killers among them.

…

Hopefully, this information will allow designers to make changes to lessen the risk of the four major killers – head on crashes, accidents at junctions, collisions with vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and cyclists, and vehicles hitting objects at the side of the road.

…

John Dawson, AA Policy Director and EuroRAP Chairman: “We have to make roads more forgiving – everyday human error shouldn’t carry a death sentence. People should not be dying on major routes because basic protection is absent from entirely predictable collisions, such as with unfenced roadside objects.

Unfortunately not available on the iPlayer, the BBC broadcast a series of programmes under the title Britain’s Killer Roads (broadcast during 2011), which attempted to educate those responsible that proper analysis of roads could show where the simplistic approach of blaming the drivers or drivers’ behaviour. It also showed the effect of addressing relatively simple measure that modified such roads, and removed or reduced the hazards.

In these exercises, no-one claims that drivers are never to blame, but they are trying to educate those responsible for roads to see past this simplistic assumption, and understand that accidents and fatalities are happening in places where there is no ‘bad driving’ (by whatever definition) taking place. And for these deaths and injuries to continue, there is no real excuse.

West Fife killer road in national spotlight / Dunfermline Press / News / Roundup

The ‘Driver is always to blame’ approach reminds me of some safety work we did some years ago.

In Europe, we build safety systems around dangerous machinery. These guards stop errant operators placing limbs inside machinery and having them chopped off.

More importantly, they stop the machinery if someone collapses, or trips, and falls into the machinery.

When we first tried to sell these to nations such as Japan, they weren’t interested – the polite response was “We do not need such things. We issue an instruction to staff not to place their hands in machinery, and they always follow instructions”.

When we asked them how they told staff not to fall into machinery if they took ill and collapsed, or perhaps tripped or were unconscious… communications broke down for some time.  The managers could not initially understand our strange concept of workers not following instructions.

We persevered, avoided being thrown out for our strange views, and eventually convinced them to fit guards.

One third of roads in Scotland deemed ‘unacceptable’

Not too long ago, I highlighted the condition of the footpaths around the east end of Glasgow, in particular, along the trenches where cables had been laid for cable TV: Will cable companies be held responsible for winter footpath damage?

At the time, (and without claiming any great insight, foresight, or imagination), I predicted there would soon be a great wailing and moaning about the condition of the road, and not a word would be heard about the footpaths.

While I am certainly not spearheading any sort of campaign or crusade regarding the issue of the forgotten footpath, I do note that we now have a report on the roads, and that report claims that more than one-third of Scotland’s road are not in acceptable condition, and that a huge maintenance backlog now exists.

Worse still is the finding of Audit Scotland to the effect that this worsening condition is actually accompanied by an increase in spending on maintenance. Only 63% of roads were deemed to be in acceptable condition. Since 2004, the maintenance backlog has increased from £1.25 billion to £2.25 billion. In 2009/10, £654m was spent on maintaining trunk and local roads, which represents an increase of £32m on spending in 2004/05.

Transport Scotland, which has responsibility for trunk roads such as motorways, said it would fully consider the report’s findings, and added that the Scottish Government was providing local government in Scotland with significant levels of funding, and that local authorities had the freedom and flexibility to allocate the total resources available to them based on local needs and priorities, including road improvements.

There’s no real point in considering what any of the various political party’s spokespersons have said in response to this, because the simple fact is that this is all they will do now, and for years  to come, as the aftermath of the recession and forthcoming spending cuts means that the old expression “Talk is cheap” will come into play.

While there will no doubt much debate about how this abysmal situation can be resolved the simple fact is that since VED (vehicles excise duty), once knows as the ‘Road Fund’ or similar, became a huge earner and was no longer earmarked or ring-fenced for road, it has become nothing more than a Treasury cash-cow, and the roads can go to pot (holes).

This is not a politically motivated thought – whoever is in power would make no material difference – it’s a simple matter of practicality. It has taken decades to create the road network, and to consider rebuilding one-third of it, which in effect is the state we are at now, would take decades.

Add to that the fact that while the remaining two-thirds are perhaps deemed acceptable today, in the decades it will take to repair the currently unacceptable third, that fraction is the same age as broken, bit, and will shortly follow it into unacceptability.

Perhaps they should have a word with the folk that managed the painting of the Forth Bridge – they might learn something.

Auditor General for Scotland appears at Holyrood

Auditor General for Scotland, Robert Black, presented his report to Holyrood’s Public Audit Committee, and opened by revealing that his own car was off the road after hitting a pothole.

Scotland’s roads watchdog reveals car damaged after hitting pothole | Scotland | STV News

I used to

I used to follow the various stories regarding transport issues, particularly in Argyll and Bute, because they related to the roads and ferries I was likely to be driving on and sailing in.

While I was just reading about these, rather blogging on what I found to be the more interesting items, the farcical nature of the spats that developed around these stories, and the way they dragged on, and on, and on, wasn’t quite so apparent as it has become over the past few years, when writing about them started to become repetitive, and I found more and more instances where I was either suffering extreme déjà vu, or having to resist the the impulse to abandon all attempts to maintain a reasonably Neutral Point Of View. One of the real pains associated with commenting on these issues is filing a review one week, and then having to retract or revise that review the next week when one or other of the parties concerned published some sort of rebuttal. I have, as they say, better things to to do than keep revising the same old tat in order to maintain the level of accuracy I demand.

In fact, I’ve largely dropped all commentary on roads and ferries, as it’s akin to worshipping at the Church of the Lost Cause – there are now simply too many issues, groups, and individuals with their own agendas, each of which thinks they are hard done by victims if they don’t get 100% of their particular demands satisfied, and that everything is “fixed”; or individuals concerned have egos that must make it difficult for them to get through doors or find rooms with high enough ceilings to accommodate them.

Because I’ve been diverted on work elsewhere recently, I decided to have a quick browse around for any transport related items this morning, and I see that things are no different, and it’s business as usual with claim and counterclaim.

I reckon if all those involved put the same effort into dealing with the actual issues at hand, rather than forever trying to score political points or indulge in one-upmanship (one-uppersonship?), then many of the issues would have been resolved years ago. But that would be too easy, wouldn’t it?

This time, the broken record (what’s the MP3 equivalent of a broken record?) was related to rail and trunk road improvement measures outlined in the Scottish Government Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR). Rather than waste time giving an account of yet another spat between individuals involved, I’ll just point you at an online new report as published in the online version of the Dunoon Observer: Transport spat simmers on

Now, why do I suspect little will change in the transport system, but there will be many reports of dispute over the coming years, and I will read much, but blog little about the subject?

Clota – The Roman Clyde

Every so often, web video demonstrates its ability to surprise, and when it does, and we’re spared the juvenile ramblings of the kids with mobile phone with video cameras, then we’re treated to the occasional gem that we might never have seen otherwise.

The following pair of videos feature a description of the Clyde, or Clota, dating to Roman times, and provides an interesting look at a number of hidden or secret aspects that the vast majority of us have probably passed hundreds of times, without realising their history or significance.

Clota Part 1, Bishopton to Greenock:

Clota Part 2, Greenock to Largs: