Glen Coe

There has been another tragic accident on the A82 with loss of life. This time a couple of miles south of Fort William. Everyone I’m sure will be thinking of the poor souls having to come to terms with sudden bereavement this evening.
The road has been closed for many hours and remains so as I type. As is the case with these closures very little information is provided to other travellers in terms of alternatives and waiting time. BBC Scotland simply said to avoid the road and helpfully added there were no diversions. To be more accurate they should have said no safe diversions. There was the option to cross Loch Linnhe on the Corran Ferry and drive round the end of Lochiel on a narrow single track road with passing places. That is what I did and It was utter chaos. There seemed no restriction on vehicles allowed to enter this route and there really should have been some formal traffic management or police presence here.
When you have two columns of ten or so vehicles meeting one another on a single track road and the intervening passing place can accommodate three cars at most it is obvious that drivers in trailing cars need to pull over early in to another passing place or the road quickly becomes grid locked. Factor in some HGVs which topple over as soon as a road wheel goes on to soft verge and the outcome is bedlam.

At one stage there was a total snarl up about 200 metres ahead and I pulled over in to a passing place so as to avoid contributing to the mess unfolding. The young male driver behind me was yelling why I was stopping so early. A common sense (and personality) by pass placed the logic of the vehicle movements out with his grasp. I politely explained there was no where to go and our advance would simply compound the difficulties the drivers ahead were trying to fix. (I could have engaged in a battle of wits but the poor man was unarmed). To his credit I saw a driver of a breakdown truck getting out and running back and forth offering guidance and direction to help get folk moving again. Eventually a huge tipper lorry with a load of bitmac trundled past trailing a string of maybe 15 cars. This event was the single longest delay but every meeting of opposing queues presented more hold ups and the risk of collisions.

Earlier in the journey I stopped at the road side in Glen Coe for a blip. With hindsight I could have done a Munro without loss of time.