Picture shows perils of A816
I OFFER no apologies for returning this week to the subject of safety on the A816.
This was, of course, the road where the McCorrisken toddlers Seth, two, and Leia, three, so tragically died back in July when the car in which they were travelling left the road and plunged into Loch nan Druimnean near Kilmelford.
There is a campaign, which I am fully behind, to have safety barriers installed. This, after all, is the main road between Oban and Lochgilphead and it is dangerous.
The need for barriers was brought into even sharper relief thanks to the work of Neil Owen, a pilot of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drones, who runs ArgyllUAVs.
Neil was prompted to send up a drone to take some superb aerial photographs after reading about the campaign two weeks ago, and he kindly sent a number of the pictures to us here at The Oban Times.
The photo printed here shows all too clearly how perilously close the stretch of road is to the loch beside it. It would take only the slightest of errors, or for a car to skid on spilled oil or some other substance, for a repeat of the tragedy in the summer.
And there is a very clear precedent for the erection of barriers. I was struck during a recent trip from Oban to Fort William by how many barriers there are on the A82 along the side of Loch Linnhe. The same can be said for the A85 alongside Loch Awe. If those roads are thought so dangerous that they warrant safety measures, then why not the A816?
We really need to keep banging this particular drum to force the responsible body to take action. And the sooner, the better.