Hollow words not enough after tragedy

AShamefully, no help came for three days

central plank of Police Scotland’s mission is to keep people safe. The force abjectly failed in its duty of care to Lamara Bell, a young mum who desperately needed help after the car she was travelling in careered down an embankment.

The police were alerted to a vehicle off the road. But, shamefully, no help came for three days.

Lamara’s physical and mental trauma in that critical time period can only be guessed at as, tragically, she is no longer here to bear witness.

She died, unnecessarily according to medical experts, four days after being belatedly conveyed to hospital after the force was alerted to the vehicle for a second time.

John Yuill died in the wreckage of the car, albeit his injuries from the crash were not believed to have been survivable.

Yesterday, Police Scotland found itself in the unprecedented situation of being the accused in the dock at the High Court.

The force admitted breaches of the Health and Safety at Work Act and were fined £100,000, with Chief Constable Iain Livingstone making an unreserved apology to the families of the deceased.

But nothing will ever make up for the loss suffered by Lamara and John’s family and friends.

The fledgling Police Scotland, as it was in 2015, was suspected of being a troubled and flawed organisation.

The tragedy that befell Lamara Bell and John Yuill simply demonstrated that point in the most irredeemable of ways.

Counsel for Police Scotland assured the court lessons had been learned from the tragedy and improvements made in callhandling systems.

It is the chief constable’s job to ensure those are not hollow words.

This most terrible of episodes will forever be a dark stain on Police Scotland’s reputation, but the force must now look forward and work to regain public confidence lost.