A Blantyre family had remarkable escape from death in August 1927, when a motor car in which they were travelling ran down an embankment, overturned, and went on fire.
There were five persons in the car —Mr and Mrs Thomas Forrest, Glasgow Road, Blantyre; their son, John, aged 20; their daughter, Christina, aged seven; and friend, Mr Wm. Hulley of Burnbank.
At Standhill Bridge, midway between Armadale and the village of Blackridge, the car skidded, turned round, crashed through a hedge, and toppled over a steep embankment. All the occupants were trapped underneath when the car came to stop at the foot. To add to their terrible predicament, the car suddenly burst into flames, with them all still inside upside down.
The accident was witnessed by the occupants of two nearby buses, and Peter Turner, a driver, Armadale; Andrew Cockburn, Bathgate; and John Russell, conductor, Linlithgow, dashed to the rescue. Using their brute force, they raised the car and rescued the terrified and alarmed Blantyre occupants from underneath.
The whole proceedings occupied less than fifteen minutes, and as you would imagine, created a great deal of excitement.
From “Blantyre Explained” by Paul Veverka (c) 2016
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Elizabeth Dobson Grieve I think that the Andrew Cockburn mentioned may be my cousin