Car crash news
22/02/2011

Trapped teenage driver died after car crash

The parents of a teenage driver, who was trapped in a car crash for nearly an hour because an emergency call operator forgot to call out the fire service, may consider making a compensation claim for their son's subsequent death as a result of the head injury he sustained.

The ambulance crew, which arrived at the vehicle accident scene near Kettering, Northants, within 15 minutes, was unable to do anything to help the 17-year-old, whose Vauxhall Corsa had crashed, rolled over and hit a tree in August 2009, until fire officers arrived 30 minutes later to cut him out of the wreck.

A pathologist at the inquest in Kettering said he did not think the delay in treating the youth's brain injury had contributed to his death in hospital two days later.

Two other youths in the car were less seriously hurt.

In a statement to the coroner, an East Midlands Ambulance Service dispatcher said she had forgotten to alert police and the fire service because she was coming to the end of her 12-hour shift. She had received the emergency call via the neighbouring East of England Ambulance Service and had not checked to establish that two people were trapped and other services would be needed.

The young driver's parents, who had been alerted to the road traffic accident by a friend and drove to the scene from their Corby home, said they had waited for 25 minutes before the fire service arrived, once it had been called by the ambulance crew.

A spokesman for East Midlands Ambulance Service said a full investigation had been carried out and it had put measures in place to ensure there was no recurrence of the incident, subsequent to a future car crash.