A mother and daughter from Campbeltown escaped with their lives after the car they had been in minutes earlier was swept off the road and down an embankment by a landslide.
Fiona Smith was travelling for a weekend away with her daughter Kiera when the Vauxhall Zafira she was driving became stuck on debris on the A83 near the Rest and Be Thankful during torrential rain at about 8am last Saturday.
In a post in an A83 Facebook group, Kiera urged road-users not to travel, revealing what happened after the pair got stuck.
“A police officer ran towards us, screaming to get out the car and run,” she said. “About two minutes later, a landslide hit our car … a second landslide hit and took the car over the edge and down into the ditch below.”
Speaking to the Courier afterwards, Kiera said: “We sat in the car for a few minutes before the police officer came over and told us to get out.
“I don’t really know what I thought at the time, I think I was numb-ish.”
The 19-year-old, who works in McKellar’s Confectionery shop and does supply work in schools as an additional support needs assistant, doesn’t know the police officer’s name, but has thanked her for warning them about the danger.
She also thanked Tesco lorry driver Roy Cameron who took them to a hotel afterwards.
The mother and daughter had been planning to enjoy a weekend away as a birthday treat from Kiera for 44-year-old Fiona, an additional support needs and teaching assistant at Castlehill Primary School.
With the car off the road, and inevitably a write-off, they were forced to cancel their plans, staying in the hotel overnight before returning to Campbeltown on Sunday.
Kiera said: “It’s weird looking back at it now because I think it’s finally settling in what happened.
“At the time, it wasn’t overall scary, it was after, when all the ‘What if?’ thoughts started occurring…”
The area around the A83 Rest and Be Thankful saw a month’s worth of rainfall, around 160mm, fall over 36 hours.
The landslide was one of at least seven on the A83, including several at the Rest and Be Thankful and both sides of the A815 junction to Dunoon, closing the arterial road between Inveraray and Tarbet, stranding many inside and outside Argyll.
Ten people caught in cars between the landslides on Saturday were airlifted out to safety by HM Coastguard.
Police said there were no reports of injuries.
Contractors worked round the clock clearing the debris, including A&L McCrae, who photographed Kiera and Fiona’s stricken car in the mud.
Following hillside inspections, the A83 between Tarbet and Inveraray was reopened to all traffic from 3pm on Wednesday, after more than 12,000 tonnes of debris was removed and roadside verges and drainage systems were cleared.
Elsewhere in Argyll, the A816 is expected to be closed near Ardfern for a month after three massive landslides covered a 200m section of the Lochgilphead to Oban road.
In a statement on Monday, Argyll and Bute Council said: “The volume of debris on the road is around 6,000 tonnes [3,000m2].
“There are large potentially unstable boulders (some estimated to exceed 70 tonnes) high on the slope.”
The road closure has resulted in a more than 60-mile diversion for motorists, via the A83-A819-85 or vice versa.