There are any number of rocks there on which people would normally have been battered to death.”Extraordinary circumstances surrounding the accident on Sunday illustrate how crowded popular climbing areas like Lochnagar have become. In superb conditions – bright sunshine, little wind, and crisp snow on the summits – thousands of climbers and winter hillwalkers were out across Scotland.The students were discovered by rescuers from the Braemar and Aberdeen teams winched down from a helicopter to deal with another accident in which a climber fell from a gully and landed on a separate party of three.An unnamed climber had fallen from midway up Raeburn’s gully and landed on another party heading up the same route. According to rescuers, there were about 40 people gathered underneath the climbing routes, an unusually high number as the weather was good after two poor seasons.”If you choose to queue for a climb, then you are laying yourself wide open to the possibility of someone falling on you,” Sgt Gibb said.One of the three, Bill Morgan, 51, of Aberdeen, suffered a broken leg. After scaling the cliff, rescuers had to lower Mr Morgan 1,000 feet and carry him out. He followed the two students to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary for treatment.Prince Charles gave the mountain celebrity with his story for children, The Old Man of Lochnagar. He was following in the footsteps of Lord Byron, who ascended the mountain when aged 15 and later wrote of its “wild and majestic” crags, extolling “the steep frowning glories of dark Lochnagar”.On another Scottish peak, a man died on Sunday as he slid 1,000 feet.
Killin mountain rescue recovered the body of John Cooper Bryan, 54, of Balornock, Strathclyde, who slipped and fell on Ben More, near Crianlarich. He was walking alone.A search in the Highlands by Dundonnell mountain rescue for two climbers on the 3,472ft An Teallach in Wester Ross was cancelled yesterday when it emerged they had earlier returned to their car and left.. FRANK DOBSON, the Health Secretary, will today announce a shake- up of Britain’s three high-security hospitals in response to the publication of a damning official report. The 600-page report of the two-year Fallon inquiry into allegations of paedophile activity, drug and alcohol misuse, the availability of pornography and financial irregularities at Ashworth hospital, Merseyside, will be released today, highlighting serious management failings.
The inquiry, led by retired judge Peter Fallon, QC, was ordered in 1997 following claims that an eight-year-old girl had been smuggled into the hospital and that inmates had abused young patients on the wards.
The alleged problems were centred on the personality disorder unit.The former health secretary Stephen Dorrell set up an inquiry, following claims by Stephen Daggett, a convicted sex offender who absconded during an escorted shopping trip to Liverpool.Daggett, who is now housed in Rampton special hospital, near Nottingham, told the inquiry at Knutsford Crown Court last year that drugs and hard- core pornography were secretly sold inside the hospital and a near-naked girl was given a piggy-back ride by a convicted paedophile.A senior doctor at the hospital told the inquiry that she had been aware that a girl was visiting a convicted child-killer, Paul Corrigan, but had given instructions that the visits should be supervised by nurses.But consultant psychiatrist Dr Zona Crispin denied having knowledge of the same child spending time with convicted paedophile Peter Hemming.The panel heard sworn statements from more than 100 patients, staff, medical experts and union representatives. In July, the hospital’s chief executive Dr Hilary Hodge, who had been in post for only 10 months, left citing “irretrievable” disagreements with her staff.The Fallon team is understood to have drawn up more than 50 recommendations. As a result, Mr Dobson is expected to instruct managers to impose much stricter regimes at Ashworth, Rampton and Broadmoor hospital in Berkshire. This is likely to include a clampdown on the use of computers, swimming pools and tennis courts and greater restrictions on family visits.The Prison Officers’ Association said last night that it was important the Government did not send patients with personality disorders – who are not classed as mentally ill – to jail, where there were insufficient resources to cope with them.. A CAMPAIGN to curb the number of deaths caused by carbon monoxide poisoning in Britain’s homes was launched by the Government yesterday.
Each year, an average of 50 people are killed by the fumes from boilers and other heaters. The campaign will concentrate on Wales and the Midlands where almost half of the deaths have occurred over the past 10 years. The Department of Trade and Industry says it has no idea why these places suffer the highest mortality. But it warns that there is a misconception that most fatalities happen in poorly maintained rented accommodation and holiday cottages.
Some 70 per cent of the victims are poisoned in homes that they themselves own.The department will spread the word with a road show that will target the danger regions and which has been organised with the help of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents. It will give advice on how to spot the danger signs when it visits Cardiff, Nottingham and Birmingham.Dr Kim Howells, the Consumer Affairs minister, said: “Awareness of the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning and taking preventative action are the best ways to avoid becoming another carbon monoxide statistic.”It is not only gas consumers who are at risk. Oil, coal or wood burning boilers and stoves can all produce lethal levels of carbon monoxide if they are not properly maintained, or used in badly ventilated rooms.The department has had a safety warning printed on millions of gas bills during the winter, when almost all the deaths occur. There will also be television advertisements and leaflets placed in GP surgeries.Dr Howells said: “Take care if you have moved house recently or moved into rented accommodation.
Find out when the boiler, other appliances and flues were last checked and by whom. If all your family are suffering from unexplained, flu-like symptoms contact your doctor; it could be carbon monoxide poisoning.”Heating systems should be checked for safety once a year by a competent installer, and a chimney that has previously been used for another fuel should be swept before a gas fire or boiler is fitted.. MILLIONS OF pounds were promised to the grass roots of football yesterday on the eve of a court case which could decide the Premier League’s future. In a report backed by the Premier League, the Government-appointed Football Task Force recommended that at least 5 per cent of television revenue should be set aside for community projects and the improvement of facilities at amateur and school level.
The apparently generous pledge comes as the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) argues that the Premier League’s lucrative sale of television rights is not in the public interest.
