M9 crash victim was 'writhing in pain' after being trapped in car for three days, inquiry hears

An inquiry heard how Lamara Bell, 25, was critically injured next to her boyfriend John Yuill, 28, who was found dead after their Renault Clio was discovered in an embankment near a slip road in Bannockburn in July 2015.

Reemul Balla

News reporter @Reemul_B

Monday 25 September 2023 23:26, UK

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Undated handout file photos issued by Police Scotland of John Yuill and Lamara Bell, who died after lying in a crashed car for three days after the incident was first reported to police. Representatives from Police Scotland will appear at Edinburgh High Court on Tuesday to give evidence in the M9 death crash case. Issue date: Tuesday September 7, 2021. PA Photo. John, 28, and his partner Lamara, 25, died after their car left the M9 near Stirling in July 2015.
Image: Lamara Bell (right) and her boyfriend John Yuill died after a crash in Bannockburn
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A paramedic has described the moment he found a crash victim "writhing in pain" three days after being discovered on the M9 motorway.

An inquiry heard how Lamara Bell, 25, was critically injured next to her boyfriend John Yuill, 28, who was found dead after their Renault Clio was discovered in an embankment near a slip road in Bannockburn in July 2015.

She died in hospital four days later having suffered a brain injury, a broken limb and severe dehydration.

Officers failed to show up to the scene sooner after a police control room operator did not log a 101 call reporting the crash on 5 July.

Police located the couple only after a second phone call from a member of the public who had spotted the vehicle on 8 July.

Police missed crash for three days Police officers search the scene at Junction 9 of the M9 after a car was discovered yesterday off the road with the driver dead and passenger still alive. An investigation has been launched into the police failure to follow up a report of the crash which killed John Yuill, 28, and left 25-year-old Lamara Bell critically injured in hospital.
Image: The couple had been on a camping trip to Stirling and were making their way back to Falkirk

One of the first paramedics at the scene, James Stewart, told the inquiry that Ms Bell seemed "confused and incomprehensible" and had been "writhing in pain".

Giving evidence at the Fatal Accident Inquiry (FAI) at Falkirk Sheriff Court, Mr Stewart, then a service area manager for the Scottish Ambulance Service, assessed Miss Bell, putting her at a nine on the Glasgow Coma Scale - corresponding to a moderately acute traumatic brain injury.

He said she would only move after stimulus had been applied.

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The paramedic, who retired from the ambulance service in 2018, also said Ms Bell seemed "hypothermic" just by "touch".

Mr Stewart said: "It was touch really. To touch her skin - it was cold. That was one indication. It could [also] have been the colour of her skin as well."

The couple had been on a camping trip to Stirling and were making their way back to Falkirk.

They were survived by a daughter and younger son.

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The FAI comes after Ms Bell's family was awarded more than £1m in damages from Police Scotland in a civil settlement in December 2021.

In September 2021, the force was fined £100,000 at the High Court in Edinburgh after it pleaded guilty to health and safety failings which "materially contributed" to Ms Bell's death.

It also admitted Ms Bell and Mr Yuill remained "unaided and exposed to the elements" in the car between the dates of the crash and the vehicle's discovery.

The inquiry continues.

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