The death of a woman who spent three days beside her boyfriend’s body after a car crash was due to ‘organisational failure’ within Police Scotland, a sheriff has found.
Lamara Bell, 25, could have survived if police had acted on a 101 call around five hours after the ‘devastatingly powerful collision’ in July 2015.
But the officer who took the call failed to log the report that a car had been seen in bushes at the bottom of an embankment beside the M9 near Bannockburn, Stirlingshire.
Sergeant Brian Henry had taken a written record of the call but did not log the information on the force computer system and there was no procedure for cross-checking whether action had been taken.
Instead, a badly injured Ms Bell was left in the wreckage beside the body of John Yuill, 28.
Lamara Bell, 25, could have survived if police had acted on a 101 call around five hours after the ‘devastatingly powerful collision’ in July 2015 – but instead she was left in the wreckage beside the body of John Yuill, 28
Gordon Yuill, father of John Yuill, heard how failings by Police Scotland had ‘materially contributed’ to the death of Lamara Bell, following the crash on the M9 in 2015
Police only responded following a second call three days later when a local farmer saw the Renault Clio and found the mother-of-one pleading for help. She died in hospital four days later.
Sheriff James Williamson has now published the findings of a fatal accident inquiry which found that the Bilston Glen call handling centre was in a ‘precarious state and not best placed to protect the public’.
He said: ‘The failure of Police Scotland to properly risk assess the call handling procedures and have a system of reconciliation was an organisational 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, fractious working environment’.
He was also not ‘adequately trained’ in the call handling system.
Sheriff Williamson added: ‘It is the failure of the system of call handling that created the factors which contributed to the death of Lamara Bell.’
Yesterday Deputy Chief Constable Alan Speirs said: ‘We did not keep them safe in their time of need as was our duty and for that I am truly sorry.’