Covid in Scotland: Six charged after lockdown mountain rescue call-outs
Mountain rescue teams have been called to 46 search and rescue incidents over the past two months, police have said.
Some of the call-outs involved people who broke lockdown travel restrictions to get to their destination. Police said six fixed penalty notices had been issued and six people charged with culpable and reckless conduct. Four men who travelled in the same vehicle from Midlothian to Crianlarich in Stirlingshire on 16 January were among those who had been charged. The men who were in their 20s had made the journey to climb Ben More. Police said the group had got into difficulty on the mountain and a coastguard search and rescue helicopter was called out to assist. The men managed to get themselves to safety, guided by phone calls and text messages from police and a mountain rescue team. On 9 January, a family from Edinburgh who travelled to the Biggar area in South Lanarkshire were rescued by police and Tweed Valley Mountain Rescue Team after their vehicle got stuck in snow. Police patrols have been increased at beauty spots around the Pentland Hills, near Edinburgh, and also in the Lomond hills, Lanarkshire and Aberdeenshire to deal with parking problems. Police Scotland's Assistant Chief Constable Alan Speirs said: "I fully appreciate that the restrictions affect how we live our lives and spend our free time, however, the best way to stay safe is to stay at home. "To protect the NHS we also need to protect our volunteers and emergency service colleagues who, by the nature of their work, put themselves at risk each time they're called to an incident. "Particularly at the weekends we are seeing people travelling for leisure purposes out with their local authority areas and sometimes getting caught out by the change in weather conditions." He added: "If you do find yourself in need of assistance because of being lost, injured, or in an emergency when outdoors, then phone 999, ask for police then mountain rescue. You will be helped."