Scotland police chief apologises to families of couple left in crashed car for three days

Scottish Daily Record

Well, what a state of affairs.

SCOTLAND'S police chief has apologised to the families of a couple who lay for three days in a crashed car despite the accident being reported days earlier.

Lamara Bell, 25, was seriously injured and her boyfriend, John Yuill, 28, died in the crash near Stirling, which was reported to police on Sunday but not followed up for three days .

So a member of the public phones the police in Scotland to say they witnessed a car crashing off the motorway into a field on Sunday, then it is only investigated on Wednesday where the female was found in a critical condition, with her 3 days dead boyfriend still strapped in the seat beside her.

The females father was interviewed on TV yesterday, crying and distraught of course, saying he had driven that same motorway while his daughter was laying there, while the police were aware but doing nothing. He also said his daughter did not realise it had been 3 whole days, due to shock and injury one would assume.

Absolute disgrace and shame for 'Police Scotland', I struggle to see how that can be explained, and the chief constable's apology seemed less than sincere when I watched it.

Hit n run thread right now, apologies, I'm busy away for an hour or so, just wanted to share this blameworthy story to others who may also think it as an absolutely shoddy example of policing as I do.

a reply to: grainofsand

It's a pretty grim state of affairs when something like that happens, and in this case especially for the girl stuck there for three days. The police cocked up badly.

originally posted by: grainofsand
Scottish Daily Record

Well, what a state of affairs.

SCOTLAND'S police chief has apologised to the families of a couple who lay for three days in a crashed car despite the accident being reported days earlier.

Lamara Bell, 25, was seriously injured and her boyfriend, John Yuill, 28, died in the crash near Stirling, which was reported to police on Sunday but not followed up for three days .

So a member of the public phones the police in Scotland to say they witnessed a car crashing off the motorway into a field on Sunday, then it is only investigated on Wednesday where the female was found in a critical condition, with her 3 days dead boyfriend still strapped in the seat beside her.

The females father was interviewed on TV yesterday, crying and distraught of course, saying he had driven that same motorway while his daughter was laying there, while the police were aware but doing nothing. He also said his daughter did not realise it had been 3 whole days, due to shock and injury one would assume.

Absolute disgrace and shame for 'Police Scotland', I struggle to see how that can be explained, and the chief constable's apology seemed less than sincere when I watched it.

Hit n run thread right now, apologies, I'm busy away for an hour or so, just wanted to share this blameworthy story to others who may also think it as an absolutely shoddy example of policing as I do.

Sounds suspiciously like a cock-up in the recording of the event. It has been stated that a member of public phoned the police. The police noted the details over the phone BUT (crucial bit) this was not entered into the computer log. All incidents since then were entered and followed up (clearly no endemic police incompetence !).

So it sounds like the person who took the call forgot to enter the details so in effect nobody in the police knew there was an incident. Why that person did not log the incident is what will be investigated. A classic case of one very small human error mushrooming to an unfortunate situation.

Needless to say everyone will be looking for their pound of flesh and someone to hang out to dry.

originally posted by: yorkshirelad
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So it sounds like the person who took the call forgot to enter the details so in effect nobody in the police knew there was an incident. Why that person did not log the incident is what will be investigated. A classic case of one very small human error mushrooming to an unfortunate situation.

Probably more reason to re-evaluate the methodology to ensure it never happens again.

I saw a report about this on sky yesterday. It's messed up certainly and the police should be held to account.

The thing I was most struck by though was just how uncaring and predatory the sky field team were. They doorstepped a visibly distressed mum; whose child had just been in a serious accident at a time when she has more important concerns then tried to push her into giving a statement about the police before attempting to entice the victim's daughter who must've been about 4 or 5 into giving a statement to add more emotional gravity to the story.

I know it's not news to anyone that the press are scum but it really irked me man.

The Police could have simply driven along the road, looked around for a crashed car, not seen anything so gave it up as a false story. Similar sorts of things happen in the USA where cars go off the road into a ravine.

a reply to: grainofsand

I check crashed cars just in case. One time there was a young man trapped in there. He'd been there for some time. A number of people must have driven by the car on its side off the road and not bothered to check. I never heard how it went for him but I suspect he has never fully recovered.

When the fire service arrived a fireman asked how he was. I said, "He thinks he can get out himself" meaning he obviously didn't realise how badly he was injured. The fireman said grumpily, "If he thinks he can get out let him crawl out". I found out later if we'd phoned two minutes later that fireman would have been off duty. We can't imagine what it's like working with these cases day after day and it's easy to condemn what appears to be negligence or lack of care.

The police are always wrong. If they'd driven there fast someone would have criticised their driving. If they'd sent a helicopter someone would have complained about the cost. Not attending was obviously wrong. Something will be tightened up and that will draw resources from elsewhere.

If we want the police to be infallible and polite and calm with it we have to give them sufficient respect and consideration. If we want to treat them the way we generally do we have to check crashed cars ourselves and be prepared to give first aid in very difficult conditions.

a reply to: Kester

Excellent points Kester.
Reading more it seems that two people were really at fault here.

One, the person who made the call:
STV news

We know that just prior to 11.30am on Sunday July 5 a member of the public contacted Police Scotland via the 101 system to report that they could see a vehicle down an embankment near the M9 slip road at Bannockburn.

What were they thinking calling 101 (the non emergency number) instead of 999?!
As you said, you would have checked, exactly what I would have done. If I was concerned enough to phone 101 then I wouldn't think twice about first pulling into the hard shoulder, hazard warning lights, then walk down the embankment to check.
# me, if I had a thought that someone was potentially injured then 101 is NOT the number to call. Twat whoever it was.

Two, the person who took the 101 call:

Sir Stephen House also admitted an experienced official failed to log the call from the member of the public on Sunday

Yep, you're in a job which involves directing emergency services to reported incidents.
You take a call from a member of the public that a car looks crashed off the 70mph motorway, then fail to click [enter] so it is logged on the system and officers can investigate. No excuses. Twat again, should be disciplined and/or sacked if it was not a system failure. No excuses for human error in my mind.

I'm not in emergency services, but my business landline at home is often answered by my son and he's never failed to pass a potential job message on to me, I'd be fuming if he did. No excuses are good enough for failing to tell me I had a call about work.
No excuses are good enough for an emergency services employee failing to log an incident.

Clearly human error by both the lazy member of the public who didn't stop and check, then phoned the non emergency 101 number, and grave error by the incompetent 'experienced official' who failed to log the call.

Both should hang their heads in shame, but 'Police Scotland' as an organisation should not be criticised, unless of course their systems are crap and contributed to this tragic incident.

Update:

Lamara Bell, who lay undiscovered while seriously injured next to her dead boyfriend in their car for three days after Police Scotland failed to respond to a report of a motorway crash, has died.

Guardian Newspaper Source

I hope the member of the public who phoned the 'non emergency' 101 number and failed to check on the car themselves carries this burden with them for a long time.
I hope the Police Scotland employee who took the call and failed to log it on the system carries this burden with them for a long time.

I hope this tragic situation encourages more of us to look out for fellow humans if we suspect there may be suffering or injury, instead of devolving our responsibility to a lame 'non emergency' telephone number.