A Fife farmer who helped rescue drivers stranded in deep drifts in the East Neuk on Thursday night has spoken of the “atrocious “conditions and revealed that he can “see how people could die” if caught out.
Mike Young, 37, of Lochton Farm, Crail, operates as an agricultural contractor – helping to grit private car parks all over Fife and Tayside.
On Thursday night, he and his fellow tractor drivers headed north from Anstruther and came across cars – and a gritter – that were stranded amongst the fields on the Anstruther to St Andrews road, just a couple of miles out of Anstruther.
Amid wild conditions, the cars were towed back to Anstruther and a colleague, who lives on a farm between Anstruther and Dunino, tried to access the gritter from the north before he too became stuck and had to be rescued.
It was a moment Mike caught on camera with the gritter visible and still trapped in the background.
But on Friday, as his team gritted the Fife Central Retail Park in Kirkcaldy, he told The Courier he couldn’t get over how bad it was and continued to be.
“You can only describe it as like something out of a movie,” he said.
“As soon as you got out the cab, you realise you wouldn’t survive long in it – that’s for sure.
“The wind chill and the snow blowing off the fields: When we were getting out on Thursday night and putting on snow chains, you realise how people can get in trouble up a mountain.
“It was absolutely treacherous. You can see how you could get yourself into a bit of bother really quick.”
The business which “developed as a sideline” and has now “taken over” at the farm does about 50 car parks all over Fife, Perth, Angus and Dundee.
But getting to those car parks is still dependent on the roads being cleared by council gritters, and sometimes even the tractors can’t get through.
With winds bearing down from the east, and snow subsequently drifting from the fields, not surprisingly it’s been the north-south axis roads that have been affected most, Mike says.
“Unfortunately to get to a lot of these sites you’ve got to use council roads, and when the council roads are not done you can’t always get there – someone else has to do the roads first!” he said.
“On Thursday for example a 20 minute journey to get to the farm in the East Neuk took four hours trying different routes. People were stranded. It was just horrendous.
“Normally you would assume a tractor can get anywhere and I thought that as well until Thursday night.
“But generally I think most people have heeded the warnings. My honest opinion is most people decided to stay home. The roads last night – you would normally see hundreds commuting on a Friday morning, but you only saw one or two.
“Only three people made a really bad judgment to go out on the roads. But if one car gets stuck that’s it. On the whole the roads were so quiet this morning people stayed at home.”
The Courier told earlier how another East Neuk farmer Andrew Stevenson took to Facebook to criticise some motorists for taking unnecessary chances – and getting stuck.
Posting a video of his own snow clearing efforts on Facebook, he said: “Anstruther to St Andrews B 9131 still a NO go!
“ If only the muppets that knocked at the house at 0045 this morning stuck saw my last vid!”
Leesa Gilchrist replied: “Well done Andrew… but think I’ll work from home!”