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Original poster

How terrible - a nightmare, to crash and not be found

27 replies

NoahVale · 12/07/2015 11:20

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-33497318

and the police were phoned, whose duty is it to investigate a crashed car if it isnt the police?

OP posts:
namechangedincase23 · 12/07/2015 13:07

I'm confused how they were not reported missing by their families? I haven't read a lot about it to be fair so may have missed something.

But yes - a total nightmare. So sad

ClaimedByMe · 12/07/2015 13:10

They were reported missing by their families and police put out missing persons appeals!

ConcreteElephant · 12/07/2015 13:11

They were reported missing. Someone called a report into the police about a car going off the road and it is the lack of action taken over this report that the police are investigating.

It's a very sad situation.

thornrose · 12/07/2015 13:12

It says in the article they were reported missing.

The couple, believed to be from the Falkirk area, had been reported missing to police after last being seen in the company of friends in the Loch Earn area of Stirlingshire in a blue Clio in the early hours of Sunday

aprilanne · 12/07/2015 13:25

I come from this area ,they were reported missing .someone reported seeing a crashed car but the call handler on new 101 line didn't put it through as urgent .so the poor couple lay for 3 days him dead her dying .I hope heads roll for this two little children left because someone didn't do there job .

namechangedincase23 · 12/07/2015 13:28

God that's even worse then. How could this happen? The poor families :(

storytopper · 12/07/2015 13:36

They had only been going out with each other since May. She had two DCs - aged 9 and 5. He had two DSs.

Their families reported them missing ASAP last Sunday as neither had a history of going missing, leaving their DCs, etc. They were returning from a camping trip.

I wonder if the police had tried to trace signals from their mobiles - surely two people in their twenties would have at least one mobile with them.

Original poster
NoahVale · 12/07/2015 13:56

I wondered if it is very rural in that part of Scotland

Sad
OP posts:
ClaimedByMe · 12/07/2015 14:13

My dp is telling me it's not rural it's close to Stirling services!

Today's paper is reporting he had 3 children and she had 2.

storytopper · 12/07/2015 14:13

Not really rural - central belt between Falkirk and Stirling. Slip road from a large roundabout on motorway.

MrsBungle · 12/07/2015 14:17

It beggars belief that this could happen. You have to wonder if she might have survived had she been rescued quickly. I'm so sorry for their families.

tribpot · 12/07/2015 14:18

It's not rural - less isolated than the higher stretches of the M62 for example.

What a awful thing to have happened, thoughts to their families.

springbabydays · 12/07/2015 14:26

I wonder if they might both have survived. We don't know exactly when the man died do we?

So incredibly sad.

Cantkinsale · 12/07/2015 15:11

The mans father was reported as saying a few days ago that he had died on impact.
I've never read of a crash as such, I read it originally as a car gone off the side of the road, down an embankment (could have been abandoned for all anyone knew). Trucks, lorries, cars, coaches all passed there between Sunday and Wednesday , why didn't anyone else see it? Did the caller actually see it happen? Why didn't they check then if that was the case? Many questions need to be answered. None more so than why was the call never logged properly and investigated?
The family did report them missing. Police Scotland even put out an appeal for information giving details of their car and registration number. Again it all boils down to the logging of the car down the embankment, two and two should have been put together.

Tragic set of circumstances which has left two families grieving and small children without a parent.

I've no doubt heads will roll. Police Scotland will thoroughly investigate what went wrong.

R.I.P John and Lamara.

AndDeepBreath · 12/07/2015 15:18

That's horrific ... Absolutely horrible error by police, but how did the person who reported it not notice the lack of police too??

Original poster
NoahVale · 12/07/2015 15:21

the picture the BBC put up looks like it was amongst trees. but it was still a catastrophic failure in communication by the sounds of things.

OP posts:
Cantkinsale · 12/07/2015 15:23

AndDeapBreath, it's off a main motorway service station slip road. The motorist could have been driving from/to any part of the country and maybe not even belong to the area.

AndDeepBreath · 12/07/2015 15:31

Cantkinsale, ah I see, thank you! That was baffling for a bit.

Still absolutely horrified, you wouldn't imagine this could happen these days Hmm

Cantkinsale · 12/07/2015 15:40

Totally agree. If the poor farmer hadn't gone down that part of the field, just how long would they have been there for. Feel sorry for him too, couldn't have been pleasant for him to come across the scene either.
I'm just glad they did get to them. Sorry for Lamaras family that she just wasn't strong enough to pull through it, but, hopefully a small comfort that she died surrounded by love.

Tanith · 12/07/2015 21:10

Although rare, it does happen and it doesn't necessarily need to be in some remote area either.

A few years ago, a driver crashed into undergrowth while driving on the A3 in Surrey. Although he was reported missing, he wasn't found for 5 months. He'd crashed at night and no-one saw it. Hundreds of cars drive past the spot every day, but no-one would ever go into the wooded area alongside - too overgrown for dog walking.

It was only when reports of another crash were made that the police investigated. They found no evidence of a recent incident, but they found the missing driver and car instead.

Cantkinsale · 12/07/2015 21:13

Tanith, the problem here and what everyone is up in arms about is the car was spotted and reported, but, sadly wasn't acted upon until a farmer found it in his field three days later.

Missanneshirley · 12/07/2015 21:21

my dh works in emergency services and says he can see exactly how this could happen - staff have been cut, those kept are so over stretched - the poor operator would have had 10 things going on at once and simply not logged it properly - human error but that human would be completely over loaded in their role Sad

HerRoyalNotness · 12/07/2015 21:23

I can't understand why the person who did spot it and report it, didn't go back and investigate and wait for the ambo/police etc....

I was driving home from work one day and happened to see a wisp of exhaust smoke at road level. It was the only thing that alerted me to a car that had spun off the road, ended upside down, down a bank. I stopped, checked driver who was ok, waved down more cars and services called.

PoppyAmex · 12/07/2015 21:25

It's horrible; I drove past them twice a day and can't believe how very unlucky they were to land out of sight - it's such a busy stretch of road too!

tribpot · 12/07/2015 21:31

I guess it may depend a bit on what they saw. If they happened to notice a car in the undergrowth some time after it happened, they may have assumed it was an abandoned vehicle rather than an accident in progress. If they saw it actually happen, it's hard to imagine how they didn't think they'd be needed as a witness, or why they wouldn't alert other people at the service station to help get the people out. However, I guess we may never know.