The death of a woman who spent three days next to her boyfriend’s body after a car crash was due to an “organisational failure” within Police Scotland, a sheriff has found.
Lamara Bell, 25, could have survived if police had acted on a 101 call about five hours after the “devastatingly powerful collision” in July 2015.
But the officer who attended the call did not record the report that a car had been seen in bushes at the foot of an embankment next to the M9 near Bannockburn, Stirlingshire.
Sergeant Brian Henry had taken a written record of the call, but did not record the information on the force’s computer system and there was no procedure to check whether action had been taken.
Instead, Bell, seriously injured, was left in the rubble next to the body of 28-year-old John Yuill.
Lamara Bell, 25, could have survived if police had acted on a 101 call about five hours after the “devastatingly powerful collision” in July 2015, but instead she was left in the rubble next to John’s body Yuill, 28 years old.
Gordon Yuill, father of John Yuill, heard how failures by Police Scotland had “materially contributed” to the death of Lamara Bell, following the crash on the M9 in 2015.
Police only responded after a second call three days later, when a local farmer spotted the Renault Clio and found the mother of one calling for help. She died in the hospital four days later.
Sheriff James Williamson has released the findings of an investigation into a fatal crash which concluded the Bilston Glen call center was in a “poor state and was not in the best position to protect the public”.
He said: “Police Scotland’s failure to properly risk assess call handling procedures and have a conciliation system in place was an organizational failure.”
But there was “no criticism” of Mr Henry, who had been “failed” by force.
Mr Henry, now retired, had volunteered to pick up shifts and found himself in a “confusing and contentious work environment”.
He was also not “adequately trained” in the call management system.
Sheriff Williamson added: “It is the failure of the call management system that created the contributing factors to Lamara Bell’s death.”
Yesterday, Deputy Chief Constable Alan Speirs said: “We failed to keep them safe in their time of need as was our duty and I am very sorry.”
