POLICE are investigating the death of a road accident victim following
claims that officers stood taking statements as the man lay dying.
Mr Stephen Murphy, 23, of Alexandra Road, Glenrothes, was hit by a car
as he crossed Banff High Street on Monday evening.
Witnesses say Mr Murphy was given no medical attention for
half-an-hour, the time it took for an ambulance to arrive.
One man, former offshore worker and trained first-aider John Kelly,
claimed police told him not to interfere when he asked why Mr Murphy was
not receiving attention.
He said: ''No first aid was given by police at the scene. The police
took statements. Watching a man dying in the street was quite
horrendous. If a doctor had been there, it could have been possible to
keep the man alive until the ambulance arrived.''
Mr Kelly, of High Street, said he and neighbours tended Mr Murphy, but
were unable to save him.
Mr Kelly claimed that he had to run to a doctor's house.
''The sergeant told me he had done all that was required and then got
stroppy. But we could see the man bleeding to death.''
Mr Kelly has made a formal complaint against the police and is to
lodge one against the ambulance service.
Other neighbours said they became worried when no ambulance arrived
until half-an-hour after the accident.
They claimed three 999 calls were made and said that ambulances are
stationed in the town.
But it emerged yesterday that both ambulances which cover Banff were
out on calls at the time.
Yesterday, Grampian police announced an internal investigation.
Assistant Chief Constable David Beattie said: ''While not wishing to
pre-empt the outcome of this investigation, it has been established that
a police sergeant on patrol arrived at the scene within minutes.
''He immediately satisfied himself that first aid was being rendered
by a nurse and a trained first-aider.
''He thereafter summoned further medical assistance, ensuring that a
doctor was called, and attempted to secure the support of a helicopter
to remove the casualty to hospital.''
Mr Beattie said the saving of lives was on over-riding priority of
Grampian police.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article