A young holiday-maker has died after the car she was driving plunged into a river.
Eighteen-year-old Amy Simpson was driving back to the cabin she and her friends were staying in at Loch Awe when the tragedy happened.
It is understood the car went off the road at a small bridge over the River Avich, near Dalavich, and landed upside down as it plunged into 6ft of water.
The four passengers, who were aged between 17 and 19, managed to escape from the Peugeot with minor injuries and raised the alarm.
Last night, Amy’s heartbroken mother Angela described her as her “rock” as she broke the news to friends online.
She wrote: “Amy was my world, best friend, my daughter, my rock, my everything.”
Miss Simpson, from Cowdenbeath, Fife, was on a break with six friends in a cabin at Loch Aweside Forest Cabins.
Five of them had spent the day in Oban, and were returning to their cabin when the accident happened at about 6.45pm on Tuesday.
Dr Bill Miller, who lives by the river, said Amy’s distraught friends had raced to his cottage to raise the alarm after escaping from the water.
The 69-year-old said: “It has been a harrowing experience.
“I didn’t hear it happen because of the noise of the river.
“One of the girls came up and hammered on my door. I rushed over, she was saying ‘the car has gone into the river and there is still someone in it’.
“The car was completely underwater apart from one back wheel. It was upside down.
“I rushed back to the house and dialled 999 and they sent all the services.
“I did my best to comfort the four girls who were understandably very upset. The fifth girl was still in the car.
“They have gone across the ditch, through the wooden fence and into the river. At the moment it is about 6ft 7in deep.”
The retired doctor said he did not know how the other four girls had managed to escape relatively uninjured.
“I am a medic, I worked in Ninewells Hospital in Dundee and have seen quite a lot of accidents,” he said.
“How the other four girls weren’t more seriously injured I don’t know. One had a minor injury to her hand and another had a tiny cut to her face.
“Obviously they had been under water. The water temperature, according to one of the rescue guys, was 6C.
“It was very obvious to me being in the business that there was no way of saving the girl in the car. She was upside down in a submerged car, there was no chance at all. It is just terrible.”
Police and fire crews attended the scene, alongside members of the Oban Coastguard volunteer rescue team.
The young women arrived at the cabin on Sunday and were due to leave yesterday morning.
Irene McClounnan, caretaker and cleaner at the cottages, said yesterday: “Some of the parents came up last night to take their girls home. One of the dads was just dumbfounded. He was in shock.
“They were lovely girls and had been having a nice holiday. They had been using the hot tub and the fire pit, just young girls having a good time.”
She said that a car crashed into the river at the same point 10 or 11 years ago but the occupants had managed to escape safely.
She added: “They need to get a metal barrier installed to stop any more accidents.”
A police spokeswoman said: “Police inquiries are continuing after an 18-year-old woman died following a road crash at Druimdarroch on Tuesday.”
A full report will be submitted to the procurator fiscal.
