A FIREFIGHTER chief who saved the lives of four colleagues trapped in
a submerged fire tender is to be recommended for a decoration to mark
his action.
Solicitor Sidney Smith told a fatal accident inquiry at Jedburgh
Sheriff Court yesterday that Station Officer George Cockburn's action in
pulling four colleagues from the River Tweed at Kelso last January 14
had saved them from possible drowning.
The driver of the fire tender, 37-year-old Ian Bruce, was trapped
after it plunged 40ft into the river. He was pronounced dead after being
cut free two hours later. Station Officer Cockburn twice went under
water to try to rescue him.
Police Constable Ian Glover said he had been the first policeman to
arrive: ''When I looked through the hole in the parapet of the bridge I
saw persons lying out on the side of the tender. I did not know at the
time that they had been injured. I thought they were dead.''
Firefighter David Thomson, the last of the rescued men to give
evidence, said he had seen one vehicle on the bridge at the same time as
the fire engine but he did not see the articulated lorry that had also
come on to the bridge. Mr Thomson had received neck and back injuries.
Mr Norman Innes, of Riverside Drive, Haddington, driver of the
articulated lorry, said he had crossed Kelso bridge many times with his
heavy vehicle. It was the custom for one to give way to the other
through flashing lights or to stay at the end of the bridge to allow
another vehicle to cross. There was not room for two heavy vehicles such
as an articulated lorry and a fire engine.
He said: ''I was stopped by the kerb when I saw the fire engine coming
on. It tried to get up on the kerb. I was frightened when I saw the
machine coming towards me and I was ready to jump into my passenger
seat.
''Then the fire engine seemed to lurch up, sort of passed me, and it
seemed to jump over the parapet.''
0 Summing up, procurator-fiscal Graham Fraser said: ''He (Mr Bruce)
might have been better advised to stay where he was or he could have
gone on to the pavement more slowly but it is easy to be wise after the
event and difficult to criticise Mr Bruce for the option he took. This
is a tragic event, a tragic accident.''
Mr Fraser added: ''Measures are being taken to build a by-pass and a
replacement bridge.''
This was substantiated by engineer Alan McGhee from Borders Regional
Council.
He expected a start to be made to the new bridge by the autumn of
1994.
Solicitor Sidney Smith, who represented the surviving firemen, said
they were grateful to Mr Cockburn: ''If he had not acted so quickly and
so courageously we could have been dealing with more than one death,
though that is tragic enough.
''The fire services are recommending Mr Cockburn for a decoration and
my clients would like to see that happen.''
Sheriff James V. Paterson also commended the action of Mr Cockburn and
expressed sympathy to Mr Bruce's widow and family. Sheriff Paterson said
he will issue his findings in writing at a later date.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article