WHEN you are the groom heading to church on the day of your wedding, the last thing you want to be involved in is a car crash.

But following a serious crash just miles from his destination, groom James Gerrard and his wedding party of walking wounded were forced to wait up to 90 minutes for an ambulance.

This slow response time has been brought to the attention of a county council scrutiny committee which has asked South Central Ambulance to report back in full on the alarming incident from earlier this year.

It was fortunate that none of those involved in the crash were more seriously injured, otherwise there could have been more serious consequences.

It is reassuring to hear that a first responder acting on behalf of SCAS arrived very promptly, but there was an unacceptably long delay in getting a sufficient number of ambulances to the scene to take all those needing treatment to hospital.

The ambulance service has quite rightly apologised for its performance on this occasion, and the difficulties staff encountered has once again raised legitimate questions about ambulance response times in rural areas.

It was vital that SCAS succeeded in getting a first responder to the scene within minutes, but the follow-up response times from the ambulances themselves were not good enough.

SCAS must now provide a full and detailed justification of its actions on the day in question. A proper inquiry into such an inadequate response could, potentially, save lives in future.