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Daily Record
Daily Record
National
Matt Bryan

Lucky escape as Lanarkshire couple and two infants left in shock after car skids off road and crashes down ditch

A Lanarkshire family have told of their lucky escape after their car crashed down an embankment at a "death trap" area this week.

Gary and Louise Nicholson were driving out of Lanark with their two young children, aged two, and six months, on Monday when the vehicle skidded at a bend on Cleghorn Road.

It went off-road sideways hitting trees and narrowly avoided toppling over before two trees stopped it in a ditch.

Gary told Lanarkshire Live everyone was in shock from what happened and his family were fortunate to leave the scene uninjured.

The glass from the window where his two-year-old son Harris was sitting shattered outwards, preventing harm to the toddler, meanwhile six-month-old baby Torra was also left unscathed.

Police and fire crews raced to the scene after passers by helped the family out of the car and away from the embankment.

Still in shock from the incident, Gary hopes something can be done about this particularly dangerous spot in Lanark after hearing many accidents have occurred there in recent years.

He said: "Since speaking to people since the crash, we've been told there's been at least 10 crashes there in the past four years. It's a real bad stretch.

"I was probably driving at the corner at about 26mph and then the back end just spun, and went over.

"There was debris from the trees that fell and because of the hot weather and that it rained that morning it made the road all slimy. It was like black ice.

"It caused us to skid and then went down and it was a very steep embankment, the car almost went on its side.

"Everyone was thankfully fine. The window smashed at my son's side of the car so we were lucky nothing came through there.

"The police ended up taking us to hospital so we all checked over and we were all okay."

The first thought for Gary and Louise was to make sure their kids were okay from the crash.

Gary added: "The first thing we did was check the kids and think 'what do we do?' so we were really shook up.

"My two-year-old son was in shock. I think because they saw us in shock they weren't panicking too much.

"My six-month-old daughter didn't cry straight away so we were a bit panicked about her so it was all very scary.

"I just remember being at the top of the embankment and just sliding down. Then it was just a case of getting out the car.

"We hit a bit of a tree and ended up going down sideways and the car came to a stop when it met two trees down the embankment.

"I think if it had got to the bottom it would've toppled and rolled onto its side. The two trees stopped it from being worse. And going down sideways helped as if it was straight on going down, there would've been airbags out and glass everywhere.

"The way the path is there, if anyone was walking at the time they wouldn't have stood a chance."

The family is hoping their near-miss will spark action from the authorities to address safety concerns on Cleghorn Road.

"I think the problem is everyone thinks it's down to speed, when it isn't", Gary continued.

"It's the road condition, there's no kerb or barrier there to stop the car. And there's no shell grip there either.

"You do get the feeling that it's going to take for somebody to die or have a really bad injury before anything is done.

"I think the road needs shell gripped, the kerb needs raised. And the barrier needs put in to protect pedestrians, and the speed limit should be dropped round to 30mph because of the bend."

A Police Scotland spokesperson said: "Police were called around 2.25pm on Monday, 25 July, to a report of a one car crash on Cleghorn Road, Lanark."

And a Scottish Fire and Rescue Service spokesperson added: “We were alerted at 2.24pm on Monday, 25 July to reports of a road traffic collision involving a vehicle on Cleghorn Road, Lanark.

“Operations Control mobilised two fire appliances to the scene where crews assisted four casualties who were taken to hospital.”

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