Cumbria rocked by life-changing tragedies

Jun 6 2010 by Ruth Lawson, Sunday Sun

DESPITE its tranquil setting nestled in the heart of the Lake District the county of Cumbria has been rocked by a series of life-changing tragedies over the years.

A succession of unthinkable events in the region has seen residents having to deal with a debilitating outbreak of foot and mouth, a rail crash, mass floods, the loss of three people, including two schoolchildren, in a bus crash and this week’s random shooting spree by Derrick Bird, which claimed the lives of 12 innocent people.

The spell of bad luck for the county dates back to 2001 when hundreds of farms were struck with foot and mouth disease.

Thousands of animals were killed during the outbreak, which had a devastating effect on many rural businesses.

In 2007 a high-speed train crashed and derailed at Grayrigg, in Cumbria, killing 84-year-old grandmother Margaret Masson, of Glasgow, and injuring 22 others.

More recently in November last year parts of the country where hit by an unprecedented amount of rainfall and Cumbria was Britain’s worst-affected county.

Transport services were thrown into chaos after bridges collapsed and the floodwater tragically claimed the life of PC Bill Barker, who was trying to save lives by directing motorists off a bridge across a swollen river.

The father-of-four fell into the water when the Northside bridge, on one of the main routes into Workington, collapsed.

Many of the families that were left homeless after the floods are still waiting to move back into their properties which were damaged in the disaster.

The community was just beginning to regain a sense or normality when two weeks ago a school bus taking children from Keswick High School to their homes in West Cumbria collided with a car.

Two teenagers, Kieran Goulding, 15, of Whitehaven, and 16-year-old Chloe Walker, of Frizington, were killed in the crash along with the driver of the car, Patrick Short, 68, from Braithwaite.

Residents of the small towns and villages throughout the county are now left to come to terms with these traumatic events that occurred within such a short time span.