The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Repairs to battered bridge set back further after another car crash
Vehicle smashes through stone side of historic structure
Deja vu... The bridge hadn’t even been fixed after the last mishap.
STAFF FROM ST FILLANS GOLF CLUB
A 250-year-old bridge in rural Perthshire has been shattered in a second car crash at the site.
A car careered through the structure before repair crews could finish rebuilding the parapets after the last collision.
Just before midnight on Saturday, a white Volkswagen Polo smashed through the stone side of the Georgianera bridge spanning the River Earn at St Fillans.
Police were called after the vehicle plummeted into the ditch below, taking with it large sections of wrecked masonry.
Nobody involved in the crash sustained serious injuries.
Local residents had been waiting to be repaired the damage inflicted in a drinkdriving incident last summer.
Staff from St Fillans Golf Club posted a photograph of the wreckage on Facebook, stating: “Deja vu... The bridge hadn’t even been fixed after the last mishap. Let’s hope the occupants are OK and please remember to take care and drive steadily on our rural lanes.”
A police spokesman said: “We received a report shortly after 11.45pm on Saturday of a crash involving a single car which left the road near the junction between the A85 and the unclassified road to the south of Loch Earn.
“There were no injuries and no arrests.”
Historic Environment Scotland believe the structure, listed as Category B for almost 50 years, dates back to the 18th Century.
The public body says family records and building plans from the period point towards a 1779 contract for a bridge over the rivermouth, connecting mills and farms on either shore.
The bridge, which has not been altered in its extensive history, now links the A85 with South Loch Earn Road, allowing access to the village’s golf club, a caravan site and some lochside hamlets.
Last July, a drink-driver was fined and banned from driving after crashing a car full of campers into the same parapet.
David Grant, 27, from Bo’ness, ploughed into the wall as he approached from the south in the small hours of a Sunday morning whilst two-and-a-half times over the limit.