School demands smash calls

We need to know about these incidents immediately. Peter Bain Oban High head teacher

CONCERN was raised last week over a lack of communication between the police and Oban High School when traffic disruption is caused by road accidents.

The school’s head teacher, Peter Bain, said there was one incident recently when more than 100 pupils were stranded for hours as their school buses were caught in congestion following a serious crash on the A85 near Dunbeg.

Mr Bain told a meeting of the Oban, Lorn and the Isles community planning group that prompt notification could have allowed the school to put an alternative plan into place either to get the students home or look after them at the Oban school.

Mr Bain said: ‘Six buses full of children were trapped in the tailback at the Halfway House.

‘ We need the police to tell us straight away if there is a serious accident. At present, there is no protocol in place for the police to communicate with us. If there was – and if they did – we could put the children on to trains.

‘ With the recent accident, we had 120 kids trapped on buses and we were told that might be until 7pm. We had to get water to them to make sure they didn’t dehydrate.

‘We need to know about these incidents immediately. The police should be phoning me as soon as possible.’

A spokeswoman for the home care service pointed out that there were also problems caused for vulnerable people in similar circumstances as staff could not reach the residents they are caring for.

Councillor Elaine Robertson added: ‘Carers also need to be informed by the police as quickly as possible.’

Sergeant Alan Long, from the Police Scotland, said the disruption caused by the recent crash was particularly bad because of the severity of the accident.

He said: ‘If there is a fatal road accident, it is important that it is properly investigated.

‘These problems all come down to the severity of the accident.’