A77 Safety Group A77 People Profile

A77 People Profile

Below you will find four testimonials from people whose lives have been affected in one shape or an other by the A77.

ELIZABETH MCKENZIE
Elizabeth's 16-year-old son Fraser was killed in a car accident on September 14, 2003, 1 mile from their home town of Girvan. Fraser was in the car with three of his friends, the driver of the car had already been disqualified. Two other boys lost their lives that night.

Elizabeth says
"Fraser was my youngest son - the baby of the family, when I found out I just kept asking 'Why? - Why was he in the car?' We had to go and identify him, he was so still, so quiet, lifeless. It seemed impossible, completely unreal.
Fraser's older brother Callum comes home to a quiet house since the accident, he is an only child now, he doesn't' remember being an only child before Fraser was born. Fraser and his friends used to sit up stairs listening to music in his room - now I wish I was calling up the stairs to them to turn the music down.
Fraser is missing from society. He is missing from birthdays; he is missing from anniversaries, Christmases. Everything.
Someone asked if we were going to celebrate Christmas this year - was it a hard day for us? I thought it was strange - why would we celebrate? Is he coming back? Why would Christmas be worse for us than any other day? It never gets worse because it never gets better. We are not normal anymore - nothing will be normal again. Fraser will be 16 forever."

EDDIE GOODWIN, SCOTTISH AMBULANCE SERVICE
Eddie has been with the Scottish Ambulance Service for 19 years. He has attended several accidents on the A77, some of which have resulted in fatalities. He believes that speeding, showing off and lack of concentration is often to blame.

Eddie says
"We get the call, head to the scene, there is silence in the cab -wondering if it is someone we know, one of my relatives, one of his. You get there and training kicks in, triage -you attend to the people with the worst injuries first, get them in the back of the ambulance, decide whether to stay put and work on them or get to hospital.   Arrive at hospital, we hand them over to the receiving team - nurses, doctors, everyone, hand them over.   That is it. Jobs done, you switch off. Only you don't.

Some people we bring in, it's too late. Afterwards we go out to clean up the ambulance - with car accidents there is a lot of cleaning to be done. Hoping we get cleaned up and out of there before the relatives arrive. They run, wailing up through the car park, screaming for their boy, their girl, father or mother. Shouting to us 'Did you bring them in - did you bring my baby in?'
No we say, always we say no - it isn't our place to tell them that someone has switched the light off."

MICHAEL COOPER, AMEY INCIDENT SUPPORT SERVICE
Michael has spent the last 4 years working for Amey's Trunk Road Incident Support Service, attending incidents on the A77, A78 and A76. The Unit's remit varies from removing debris from the routes to assisting the police. Over a 3 month period on the A77 alone the incident support service attended over 100 incidents.

Michael says
"I've worked on the A77 for a number of years now and have seen all kinds of things from flash flooding to serious road traffic accidents - on a personal level I have noticed a big difference in driving on the road in the last 3 years, the new anti skid materials have really improved the road.

"I have attended many incidents on the road assisting the police and the fire brigade. One that sticks out in my mind the most is between Christmas and New Year 2005 we had some terrible weather and freak flooding, we received a report of a young family who were stuck in their car in flood water. We attended and managed to get the family, who had 3 young children, out the car and into the ISU van to dry off and heat up. We then towed the car out the flood. It had a good outcome, as the family were able to continue on their journey unscathed.

"Having worked on the route for 4 years, I definitely feel that the majority of the accidents are caused by inappropriate speed as opposed to drivers breaking the speed limit. The A77 has improved greatly however people should still take extra care when driving on this busy road."

FIONA BEELEY, A77 COMMUTER
Fiona has been travelling on the A77 for the past four years. She car shares with a friend, travelling from Ayr to Stranraer on a daily basis where she works as a teacher.

Fiona says

"I have mixed feelings on how I feel about driving the A77, in the summer the views from the roadside are gorgeous - it is incredibly scenic. It comes into winter its dark, its raining and windy the visibility is poor and commuting becomes miserable.

I would say that almost on a daily basis when we are commuting, we see people almost crashing as they attempt crazy overtaking manoeuvres - we often say it is just luck that we haven't witnessed any crashes. I would say the road has improved over the last few years - the straightened section at Girvan is a big improvement.

The A77 is different from other roads, as there is such a variety of different people using it, from lorries to farm traffic and then you have commuters like me trying to get home to their families.

One thing I have been surprised at is the average speed cameras -I thought they would cause delays but they seem to encourage drivers to keep to a consistent speed instead of slamming on the breaks then putting their foot down."

Many thanks to South Ayrshire Council "Wreckless Driving Wrecks Lives" campaign for providing some of this information.