Two women and a boy were tragically killed on Thursday 20th April 1967 when their car collided with a heavy lorry at Spittal.
We remember the people killed in this accident by this post. The car had been heading towards Glasgow and shortly before noon it came off the road, killing all three people instantly. The car left the road at a downhill bend, ploughed through a fence and came to rest in a field.
The light blue Hillman Minx car was completely wrecked (as pictured), but the sorrow that day most definitely was learning that there were fatalities. Two ambulances and a fire engine were called out and all emergency services were deeply saddened to see the tragedy.
Mrs Irene Lillico (39), manageress of the Tillietudlum Hotel and her only child Archie (5) perished, along with Mrs May Stirling of Netherburn a mother of 2 children. Both adults were in the front of the car, the child in the back, when it is believed the car became out of control and crashed into the path of the oncoming lorry, rebounding it towards the fence and field. William McGinlay, a lorry driver from Glasgow, aged 44 was uninjured.
This stretch of road was notoriously dangerous and claimed lives right into the 1990’s before being properly upgraded, removing the dangerous inclines and bends.
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