Female M9 crash victim’s pain was ‘almost incomprehensible’ as she lay dying in her smashed car for three days before she was found, inquiry rules
The death of a woman who spent three days next to her boyfriend’s body after a car crash was due to ‘organizational failure’ within Police Scotland, a sheriff has found.
Lamara Bell, 25, could have survived if police had responded to a 101 call about five hours after the “devastating high-impact crash” in July 2015.
But the officer who took the call failed to record the report that a car had been seen in bushes at the bottom of an embankment next to the M9 near Bannockburn, Stirlingshire.
Sergeant Brian Henry had recorded the conversation in writing, but the information was not stored in the force’s computer system and there was no procedure in place to check whether action had been taken.
Instead, a seriously injured Mrs. Bell was left in the wreckage next to the body of 28-year-old John Yuill.
Lamara Bell, 25, could have survived if police had responded to a 101 call about five hours after the ‘devastating high-impact crash’ in July 2015 – but instead she was left in the wreckage next to the 28-year-old’s body year-old John Yuill.
Gordon Yuill, father of John Yuill, heard how Police Scotland’s failings had ‘materially contributed’ to the death of Lamara Bell, after the crash on the M9 in 2015
Police did not respond until three days later after a second call when a local farmer spotted the Renault Clio and found the mother of a child pleading for help. She died in hospital four days later.
Sheriff James Williamson has now published the findings of a fatal accident investigation, which found the Bilston Glen telephone handling center was in a ‘precarious condition and not best placed to protect the public’.
He said: ‘Police Scotland’s failure to properly review call handling procedures and have a reconciliation system in place was an organizational failure.’
But there was ‘no criticism’ of Mr Henry, who had been ‘failed’ by the force.
Mr Henry, now retired, had volunteered for shifts and found himself in a ‘confused, difficult working environment’.
He was also not ‘sufficiently trained’ in the call handling system.
Sheriff Williamson added: “It is the failure of the call handling system that created the factors that contributed to the death of Lamara Bell.”
Yesterday, Deputy Chief Constable Alan Speirs said: ‘We failed to keep them safe in times of need, as was our duty, and for that I am truly sorry.’