Motorcyclist left in ditch for two hours as police forces passed the buck

Investigation after 999 call was ignored because biker crashed on the border of three counties

AN INJURED motorcyclist lay in a ditch for more than two hours after a crash because three police forces could not decide which one should attend.

Richard Collins, 49, crashed near the village of Tilbrook in Cambridgeshire, which borders Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire. But despite a call being received by emergency services shortly after 4pm on Sunday, help did not arrive until 6.40pm.

He was eventually taken by police car to hospital with an injured arm.

Mr Collins, who had been riding with five other motorcyclists, said: “I think I was in quite a lot of pain, I can’t really remember but I was trying not to move my arm. It was at a right angle, floppy and I had bruising.” He said a man in a pickup truck witnessed the accident, and told him that police and an ambulance were on their way.

Cambridgeshire Constabulary confirmed that it received a 999 call at 4.20pm from Northamptonshire Police, but after assessing the incident referred it back to the other force.

Bedfordshire Police was informed about the crash at 4.25pm by Northamptonshire Police but refused to attend, claiming it was outside of its area.

“I waited about an hour and a quarter and then called 101,” said Mr Collins, a service engineer. “I didn’t want to call 999 as I didn’t want to block the line.”

At 5.40pm Bedfordshire Police was told that no force had yet responded to the incident and only then sent a car.

Officers did not reach the scene until 6.40pm because of difficulties in finding the motorcyclist.

Mr Collins added: “The police officer could not believe nobody had responded and wasn’t going to wait for an ambulance to come and she took me to hospital; she was wonderful. I’m annoyed because nobody has apologised to me about it.”

The Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire forces said they believed East Midlands Ambulance Service had been alerted to the crash, but the ambulance service told the BBC it could not find the incident on its logs.

The delay has since been branded a “scandal” by Northamptonshire’s police and crime commissioner who has said that “someone should answer”.

Bedfordshire Police has referred the incident to the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

Chief Inspector Nick Lyall, of Bedfordshire Police, said: “Although the incident did not occur in an area covered by Bedfordshire Police, as soon as we were made aware that no emergency services had attended, we immediately dispatched a police car. On arrival our officer took the decision to convey the casualty to hospital in the police car in order to ensure that he received medical treatment as soon as possible.”