Inquiry rules that tragic duo lay in crashed car by M9 for days due to 'operational failures'

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A 200-page Fatal Accident Inquiry report into the deaths of two people who lay undiscovered for days in a crashed car off a Stirling motorway are published today, almost nine years after the accident. “Organisational failure” in police call handling procedures and the inadequate training of the police officer who failed to log a call reporting the incident have been blamed.

Lamara Bell, 25, and John Yuill, 28, died after the car they were in left the M9 near Stirling on July 5, 2015 as they drove back from a camping trip.

They lay in their Renault Clio for three days before being discovered on July 8, despite police previously being alerted to the incident.Mr Yuill, a father-of-five, was pronounced dead at the scene and Ms Bell, a mother-of-two, died four days later in hospital.In his determination published following a Fatal Accident Inquiry (FAI) into the incident, Sheriff James Williamson said there was no system of reconciling information recorded by officers in notebooks with action taken.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.“An organisational failure which led to the safety of the public being compromised and to the events of July 5, 2015.”The inquiry heard Mr Yuill suffered unsurvivable injuries in the crash but Ms Bell would probably have survived if she had received medical treatment on July 5, albeit with a long-term neurological deficit.In his determination, Sheriff Williamson noted the Bilston Glen police call handling centre was under pressure that summer amid staffing shortages, and there was confusion among some officers about the tripartite call handling system comprising the Aspire,