News / Car crash, power cuts, travel delays
THE WINTER weather continued to cause problems for Shetland’s travellers and emergency services over the weekend.
Fire officers had to cut free a driver from a car after two vehicles collided on the main A970 by the Fladdabister junction near Cunningsburgh on Sunday lunchtime.
The man was taken by ambulance to Lerwick’s Gilbert Bain Hospital with shoulder injuries, while the other six occupants of the two cars were allowed to go home after being checked by paramedics.
Shetland coastguard’s Lerwick coordination centre was involved in helping to transfer a kidney patient to hospital in Kirkwall as blizzard conditions created transport problems throughout Orkney.
On Unst the Baltasound volunteer rescue team spent Saturday assisting BT engineers to access the aerial at Saxa Vord which had stopped transmitting in the bad weather.
While the engineers were fixing the fault, other coastguard volunteers based themselves at the local coastguard station where they monitored VHF radio for any distress calls.
A Shetland coastguard spokeswoman said: “It was very helpful to know the local teams and to be able to speak to them directly to sort these problems out.”
Rough to very rough sea condition caused by easterly winds up to Force 7 with snow showers were causing concern for shipping traffic.
The prevailing winds delayed the departure of the NorthLink ferry Hjaltland from Aberdeen harbour on Sunday evening by two hours, with the boat not expected to arrive at Hatson pier in Kirkwall until 1.30am, though she was due in Lerwick on schedule at 7.30am on Monday morning.
The weather also caused flight delays at Sumburgh airport with flights from Aberdeen and taking off an hour behind schedule and the noon flight from Edinburgh not leaving until 4.45pm. Kirkwall airport remained closed all weekend, but Glasgow and Inverness airports were open.
Around 4,000 premises experienced a power cut for two hours between 8pm and 10pm on Saturday evening after lightning struck an overhead power line between Scava and Hoya on the Gremista to Voe cable.
Further outages were experienced in Sandwick between 2.15 and 2.30pm by around 320 customers and about the same number were without power in Mossbank from 2.10pm to 5pm on Saturday due to lightning strikes.
A spokesman for Scottish & Southern Energy said they had engineers working from 4×4 vehicles working as quickly as possible to reconnect everyone and apologised for the lack of power.
Become a supporter of Shetland News
Shetland News is asking its many readers to consider start paying for their dose of the latest local news delivered straight to their PC, tablet or mobile phone.
Journalism comes at a price and because that price is not being paid in today’s rapidly changing media world, most publishers - national and local - struggle financially despite very healthy audience figures.
Most online publishers have started charging for access to their websites, others have chosen a different route. Shetland News currently has over 600 supporters who are all making small voluntary financial contributions. All funds go towards covering our cost and improving the service further.
Your contribution will ensure Shetland News can: -
- Bring you the headlines as they happen;
- Stay editorially independent;
- Give a voice to the community;
- Grow site traffic further;
- Research and publish more in-depth news, including more Shetland Lives features.
If you appreciate what we do and feel strongly about impartial local journalism, then please become a supporter of Shetland News by either making a single payment or monthly subscription.
Support us from as little as £3 per month – it only takes a minute to sign up. Thank you.
Already a supporter? Sign in to hide this message.
