Judge Criticizes Road Alignment
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DISMISSING both cross-actions by Scottish Omnibuses, Ltd., and Midlothian County Council in the Court of Session at Edinburgh last Friday, Lord Walker criticized the state of alignment of certain main roads. The cases arose from an accident in
which a bus crashed over a bridge into the river Almond at Inveralmond.
Lord Walker said that it appeared that ordinary care on the part of drivers and local authorities could not always prevent serious accidents. In November, 1953, a bus belonging to the company skidded on an ice-bound bend forming the approach to the bridge, broke through the parapet and fell into the river. The company sued for £366 damages to their bus, and the council claimed 12,250 for damages to 'the bridge.
Evidence was that the road authority had altered the bend by raising the outer edge above the level of the inner edge. The bend was one of the first in the county to be superelevated and the construction was carried out by "rule and thumb and modified after trial and error." Since 1929 the bend had remained unaltered.
Neither party had succeeded in establishing negligence on the part of the other, said Lord Walker. "The root cause of the accident lies in the alignment of the road in a manner which is all too familiar. None of the road engineer t who gave evidence has approved of it," he commented.