Relatives seek fatal accident inquiry

Relatives of a family of five who died in a violent storm in the Western Isles are seeking a fatal accident inquiry into the tragedy - after ten years of waiting.

Archie and Murdina Macpherson died along with their two young children Hannah, 5, and seven-year-old Andrew, as well as Murdina's father Calum Campbell when their vehicles were overwhelmed by floodwater in South Uist in January 2005.

Relatives of family who died in storm flood seek official inquiry

16 April 2015

The South Ford causeway - which travels over half-a-mile across the sea basin between the islands of Benbecula and South Uist - acted as a dam, creating a huge build-up - said to be seven-feet high - of surging sea water which invaded the low lying ground and coastal roads.

Locals were caught out in the floodwaters rising into cars on villages roads.

Others escaped but the Macpherson family were swept to their deaths as the sea gushed inland.

A decade after being told to be patient and wait for reports, relatives insist there must be no more delays to staging an official fatal accident inquiry.

They say they were told to wait for the outcome of a crucial study which advocates creating openings at least 250 metres long in the causeway with bridges running over open channels.

Bereaved families who live locally are angry that Western Isles Council’s transport committee has rejected that approach because it is not economically efficient.

The committee heard it was unlikely to secure funding towards the £20 million scheme.

Instead a cheaper option of repairing a barrier of sand and shingle will be put to the full council on Wednesday.

Now the closest relatives feel councillors are effectively going against the options advocated in the council’s own commissioned South Ford Hydrodynamic Study.

Neil Campbell - son of Calum Campbell and brother of Murdina Macpherson who both drowned in the flood - highlighted both the Campbells and the Macphersons “unanimously said yes” when asked if they wanted an inquiry back in 2005.

Mr Campbell said: “We requested a fatal accident inquiry. We were advised to wait until the coastal erosion study was completed.

Two years went by and they were told “we would have to wait for the hydrodynamic survey being carried out by Western Isles Council.

Then in 2012, that was complied and the recommendations made. But we still waited and waited and it is still ongoing.

“Now we have approached the procurator fiscal again and are waiting for a response from the Crown Office regarding a fatal accident inquiry.”

Mr Campbell said the transport committee’s decision was “very disappointing.”

He pointed out that David Macpherson, Archie’s father, has architectural drawings of the 1981 plans for South Ford Causeway, showing two openings.

There are local suggestions that even three openings may have been involved in an earlier design but were possibly deemed too expensive.

As construction proceeded in the early 1980s, costs rose and the bridge spans were omitted to save cash, the relatives believe.