The Scots who kept calm and carried on – including one very cool bus driver
THE Beast from the East may have brought misery to most of the country and left many stranded.
But it has also brought out the best in people with many going out of their way to help those struggling in the appalling conditions – or simply keeping calm and carrying on.
In one of the more dramatic moments, a bus driver narrowly averted a nasty crash with a skilful swerve around an out of control car.
Charmaine Laurie’s double decker had around 20 passengers on board when she was confronted by a car which had slid over to the wrong side of the road.
A crash looked inevitable – but the 45-year-old driver calmly swerved around the obstacle while keeping the bus under control. Yesterday the mother-of-two told ITV’s Good Morning her training kicked in as soon as she saw the car. The incident happened in Fairmilehead, Edinburgh, on Wednesday, and was filmed on a van driver’s dashcam.
Mrs Laurie, of Meadowbank, Edinburgh, said: ‘I saw that guy’s face and he looked pretty scared.
‘I really didn’t have much time to react. My training just kicked in – and a lot of luck, to be honest. My back end started going out. I knew to take my foot off the brake and try to glide through it. It looks worse on the video than it felt.’
It was not until her husband picked her up hours later that she discovered he had seen footage of the near-miss on Facebook without knowing it was her.
She recalled: ‘I said “funnily enough something like that happened to me”. When he went in a shop I looked at the video on Facebook and when he came out I was like: “That was me!”.’
Scotland’s NHS staff have also been praised for going the extra mile. Two GPs hitchhiked across Glasgow to get to King Street Surgery in Paisley on Thursday and Friday. Dr John Ip, head of the Glasgow local medical committee which runs the practice, said: ‘GP practices are on the frontline, so having them in is important. One colleague got himself out to the main road and managed to rely on the goodwill of a passing motorist in a 4x4 and got himself to within two miles of the surgery.
‘He walked the rest of the way through the snow. Another colleague did the same thing today.’
Another unnamed surgeon trekked for almost three hours from Glasgow to Paisley in heavy snow to operate on a patient.
Her colleague, Glasgow colorectal surgeon Andy Renwick, told BBC Radio Scotland: ‘It took her two hours and 50 minutes. I saw her come in, she had snow goggles on, Gortexed up, top and bottom, snow shoes and walking poles.
‘She is operating today on someone who has bowel cancer. She knew that had to be done and so she made extra effort to get here to make sure that was delivered.’
In Aberdeenshire, care team co-ordinator Dana McDonald hitched a lift to work with her father on his tractor to reach vulnerable elderly people needing home care.
She said: ‘It’s been amazing the help we have been getting from the community – from farmers to families – going to some of the places we haven’t been able to reach.’
Members of the public have also been volunteering as drivers.
Gordon Goldie, 50, a project manager from Renfrew who is in between jobs, used social media to offer lifts in his 4x4. On Thursday he drove 280 miles around Glasgow delivering 44 members of staff to work or back to their homes, including doctors, nurses, police and firefighters.
He said: ‘It was a bit heavy-going at times on the roads. You just do it because you can, people help each other out.’
The charity Anthony Nolan said volunteer couriers have also been battling in a race against time to deliver potentially lifesaving stem cells to blood cancer patients. They have just 72 hours to deliver
‘She made extra effort to get here’ ‘People help each other out’
the stem cells to the recipient. Electricity firm SP Energy Networks provided its 4x4 vehicles to the NHS across central and southern Scotland to get people to work.
Deputy First Minister John Swinney said volunteers have an important role to play as the country gets back on its feet.
He added: ‘Local and national services are working together to do all we can to keep our roads clear of snow. However, the situation remains very challenging, particularly in rural and eastern areas of Scotland.
‘If you have capacity to help neighbours, or are the owner of large vehicles that could assist the clearance work, I would encourage you to volunteer and look out for vulnerable people.’