Police Scotland plead guilty to contributing to death of woman who was found days after car crash
Scottish police plead guilty to failing woman, 25, who died after waiting THREE DAYS for help in wreckage of her crashed car alongside her dead boyfriend – despite accident being reported to officers
Police Scotland plead guilty to ‘failings that contributed’ to death of Lamara Bell Ms Bell, 25, died in hospital a week after crashing on M9 near Stirling – but was only discovered by emergency services three days after incident was reportedHer boyfriend John Yuill, 28, was found dead at scene after July 5, 2015 collision Police Scotland officers initially failed to respond to reports of car leaving road They only attended the scene three days later and found her ‘100% conscious’
<!–
<!–
<!–<!–
<!–
(function (src, d, tag){
var s = d.createElement(tag), prev = d.getElementsByTagName(tag)[0];
s.src = src;
prev.parentNode.insertBefore(s, prev);
}(“https://www.dailymail.co.uk/static/gunther/1.17.0/async_bundle–.js”, document, “script”));
<!–
DM.loadCSS(“https://www.dailymail.co.uk/static/gunther/gunther-2159/video_bundle–.css”);
<!–
Police Scotland has pleaded guilty at the High Court in Edinburgh to failings which ‘materially contributed’ to the death of a young woman who was found conscious in her car three days after a serious crash.
A Police Scotland investigation revealed Lamara Bell was conscious when she was found by emergency services three days after crashing on the M9 near Stirling in 2015
Mother-of-two Lamara Bell, 25, was alive and desperately trying to escape her Renault Clio when she was finally found by emergency services on the M9 near Stirling – three days after a car crash was reported to police, who initially failed to investigate.
Her partner, John Yuill, 28, died at the scene, while Ms Bell passed away at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow on July 12.
She had suffered a brain injury, broken limbs and severe dehydration as she was ‘left unaided and exposed to the elements between July 5, 2015 and July 8, 2015.
A Police Scotland call-handler at the force’s Bilston Glen centre ‘failed to record’ an 11.30am report from an eyewitness that Ms Bell’s car was at the bottom of the embankment just off the M9, near Stirling.
But Ms Bell was ‘conscious’ and speaking to members of the emergency services after she was found alive inside her battered car three days after the crash.
The collision was reported to Police Scotland by a farmer on July 5, but the pair were only found in the car three days later after police received a follow-up 999 call.
Officers had been conducting a missing persons search for the pair in the meantime, only appealing for information on the couple’s whereabouts after they failed to return home after a camping trip on the south shore of Loch Earn, in Perthshire.
Chief Constable Iain Livingstone arriving for a hearing in the M9 death crash case at Edinburgh High Court on Tuesday morning
Couple John Yuill, 28, and Lamara Bell, 25, died after a crash on the M9 near Stirling. Ms Bell was found ‘100% conscious’ three days after the collision was reported to police who failed to investigate
Lamara’s blue Renault Clio is understood to have left a slip road at Bannockburn and ended up in an embankment off the M9 motorway just south of Stirling.
The initial witness call on July 5 was answered within six seconds but was never recorded on the force’s computer systems or sent to local officers to follow up.
Ashley Edwards QC, prosecuting, said the call-handler made a note of the call in his notebook but the information was never transferred to the command centre’s Storm system.
Lamara and John remained in the car until a concerned member of the public called Scotland Police with a similar report on July 8 – with officers finally being sent to the scene three days after the collision.
Ms Edwards said: ‘On closer inspection he saw it was a blue car with two occupants. He saw a female moving her arms and moaning.
‘She said, “help me, get me out” and he tried to reassure her and called 999.’
Later in July, it emerged that Police Scotland had called Miss Bell’s phone nine days after she died, leaving her a voicemail message.
A senior officer visited the family to apologise for the mistake that saw a constable leave the message on July 21, saying: ‘Lamara, we are looking to speak to your sister Rebecca [in reality her cousin]. If you have seen her, can you give us a call back.’
Former Chief Constable Sir Stephen House resigned from the role six years ago following public backlash over Lamara and John’s deaths.
Scotland Police’s Chief Constable, Iain Livingstone was pictured arriving for the hearing over the M9 death crash case at Edinburgh High Court on Tuesday morning.
His force pleaded guilty to breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, and having ‘materially contributed’ to the death of Ms Bell in 2015.
Scotland Police could now face a hefty five-figure fine as punishment after admitting they failed Ms Bell, despite her accident being reported to the emergency services.
The High Court was informed that Police Scotland had admitted ‘corporate criminal liability’ over Ms Bell’s death and that members of the public ‘were exposed to risks’.
Between April 1, 2013 and March 1, 2016, the force said it ‘failed to provide’ a reliable 101 call system, failed to ensure it was protected against risks caused by human error and failed to ensure relevant information submitted by members of the public was adequately recorded.
HM Inspector of Constabulary Derek Penman said staffing levels at the Bilston Glen contact, command and control centre – where the initial call regarding the fatal crash was received – were insufficient and had resulted in ‘low levels of performance’.
Officers failed to respond to reports of the car leaving the M9 near Stirling last month and only attended the scene three days later. They are pictured above on July 9
Investigation: Woodland near Junction 9 of the M9, where Miss Bell and her boyfriend were found in their car
It comes as Lamara’s father, Andrew Bell, 56, blasted Police Scotland’s poor record over answering 101 calls after a new study revealed approximately 40 per cent of all callers were unable to speak to a receiver.
He told The Sun the fresh data a ‘slap in the face’, six years on from the death of Lamara and her boyfriend John Yuill, 28, died amid a 101 bungle.
He said: ‘Most of the time you are going to head towards the 999 number. If there is nobody to answer 101, what’s the point?
‘It’s a slap in the face for everybody, not just my family. They need to invest more.’
The family remain convinced that if Lamara may well have survived the ordeal if she was found by the emergency services earlier.
Her brother, Martin Bell, revealed Lamara was conscious and able to tell firefighters her name and identity after she was discovered three days after the crash.
She incorrectly told them her age, telling those in attendance she was 29 instead of 25, and reportedly told one of them to ‘f*** off’, according to family members.
Martin wrote online: ‘She [Lamara] was able to tell them her name she added four years on to her age and told them she was 29… she did also say she was only in the car for 20 mins… And she told the fire fighter to f*** off and that is defo something my sister would say.
‘They also said she was still moving around trying to get out the car but was trapped.’
