Inquiry-into-health-worker-death

Inquiry into health worker’s crash death closes 25/4/14

Police investigators have been slammed for failing to protect the scene of a fatal accident during the closing speeches of an inquiry into the death of Lorna Macdonald.

Lorna - a speech therapist for Western Isles NHS - had driven about 16 miles following an home visit with a patient in Leverburgh, South Harris. She was heading north when her green-coloured Mazda 2 vehicle careered off the wet road and plunged into Loch nan Uidhean on Thursday 24 November 2011.

Severe weather played a role but the actual reason for her car leaving the road will never be known agreed the three parties - the family, Crown and Western Isles NHS - involved in the inquiry.

The family pointing out Lorna was a safe and cautious driver and would not have been driving too fast for the conditions.

They highlight the factors could be the car sliding off a flooded road, swerving to avoid a sheep or Lorna mistakenly hitting the throttle instead of the brake when faced with some unknown danger as she rounded the corner.

Witnesses had described the weather as horrendous with heavy, gusting winds, torrential rain and roads covered in water.

The 26-year-old of Cross Street, Stornoway, was in the car in the loch for over forty minutes after the emergency services arrived on the scene. The inquiry previously heard that a fire crew did not attempt to recover the floating car as they were not trained in water rescue.

Before the close of the inquiry in Stornoway Sheriff Court, solicitor Angus Macdonald stressed the “family feel they have been badly let down” by traffic police who wrote the accident investigation report.

He referred to earlier evidence and said the police failed in the “essential requirements” to secure the accident scene until the site was examined. The car had been completely removed from the site before specialist traffic collision investigators arrived from the mainland.

He referred to discrepancies amongst witnesses and criticised the collision investigators for relying on information from people elsewhere on the road who did later not “adhere to the statements allegedly made by them” in the inquiry hearing.

Sheriff David Sutherland said: “This is clearly a very anxious case. Any death regarding a young person in such circumstances causes great emotion.”

He endeavoured to “provide a written determination as soon as possible.”