Missing Clubbers Found In Crashed Car

[naomi24]

A group of five people, two men and three women, who failed to show up after a night out and were reported missing on Saturday have been found in a crashed car. Three are dead and two have serious injuries. Family members made repeated pleas on social media over the weekend and the police, who said officers are trying to piece together what happened, posted an appeal shortly before the car was found by family members on Monday. The families are now saying that the police didn't do enough but bearing in mind that these were all adults, is that fair?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64867187

[bhg481]

No, I don't think it is fair. The car was found in a place where it was not easily visible from passing traffic.

[barry1010]

If this happened to my loved one I would be very angry at the lack of police response too but there are over 400 people reported missing every day in the UK, with on average 268 adults.

As adults are entitled to go missing I can't see what the police could have done realistically. The car was only found because a dog walker was off the beaten track.

[douglas9401]

Young people, nightclubs and cars scenarios often end badly, admittedly not this bad but there you go.

Nothing is going to change the opinion of family members, ever.

[Ken4155]

I don't believe it's fair to lay the blame on the police. No matter how quickly they responded to the calls, the accident had already happened.
The blame lies with each individual victim - the driver (if he had been drinking) and his four passengers (if they knew he had been drinking).
I do feel sorry that these youngsters have lost their lives and i truly feel for those bereaved. Particularly for the parents of Eve Smith, whose sister also died in a road traffic accident some 8 years previously.

[tomus42]

Not fair. The car was hidden from view. I'm not sure what else they were supposed to do.

Also, as tragic as it is for the families, fatal car accidents happen every day so I'm not sure why this one is getting so much attention.

[Old_Geezer]

I tend to agree with others here, but I can understand the anger of the families. I've no idea what is normal police procedure, but I guess one doesn't immediately appeal to the public as soon as someone is reported missing. In such a case I'd have thought that in the early days it would be hoped someone would have reported a crashed vehicle. If the car was not obviously visible from the nearest road, nor on anyone's normal walking route, then it is probable that they wouldn't be found until it was time to raise priority and escalate their effort on this particular issue. It's very unfortunate but fate can be at times.

[andy-hughes]

As others have advised, I am unsure what the families could realistically expected the police to do over and above what they have done.

Naturally, grieving families look for reasons and possibly blame to assist their grieving process, but that does not make it reasonable or appropriate.

[Gromit]

Impossible to say. We don’t know what they did or didn’t do.

But the police force with all its resources failed to find them. And a family member did.

In 2010 the new Conservative Government cut 20,000 police jobs. Some police jobs have been returned, but not all of them. And they are still under resourced.

[jno]

for one person to go missing is common enough. For five, and a car, to go missing all at once is highly unusual and might have merited a proper search: it sounds as if the police just drove along the road without getting out of their vehicle, which is barely a search at all. If the graphic in the link is correct, the car was barely 20 feet off the road.

A bobby on the beat, if there is such a thing any more, would have spotted the car in minutes.

[choux]

I always thought that "missing person" reports were only recognised after a minimum of 24 hours. We now have hindsight at work.

The only point reported thus far that might have rung alarm bells is that the phones for all 5 of these young people went dead at the same time. If the car travelled some 85 miles from the club to the crash site I expect there will be some cctv to show the manner of driving.

Now have to wait for the result of a full investigation. The force has referred itself to the IOPC.

[barry1010]

Where did you read that a family member found them? As I understand it, it was a dog walker

[nero2024]

from the press jno
"Ms Russon’s mother told of how while searching for her daughter, she unwittingly drove three times past the scene of the crash....."
and a bobby would not be on the beat on country road

[naomi24]

barry, someone interviewed on television news and complaining about the police said 'We found them'. I thought it was a member of one of the families but perhaps not. Irrelevant really though. The point is the police didn't find them.

nero, quite right. No bobbies on the beat in the country.

[douglas9401]

I suppose it's an example of a service we used to be able to rely on but is no longer regarded as important enough to fund and staff adequately.
Maybe a root and branch review of how resources are deployed, getting people off social media and the hunt for 'hate speech' posts for example, would help.
I'm sure others have their own thoughts though.

[jno]

not really a country road, nero, there are houses right on the roundabout, you can see them in the aerial shot in the BBC report. Only one of the four quarters of the roundabout is open country, the others are built up. I dare say hundreds of people drove by without realising; but anyone who was conducting a search would have been well advised to get out and walk.

To repeat: this wasn't a missing person. It was five people, in a car.

[Prudie]

This story made my blood run cold as I remember back when I was in my 20s coming across a car smashed into trees one night with 4 dead young people in who had been drinking in the same pub as me that evening. I assume this is big news because 2 people lying injured with 3 dead colleagues in a car for 48 hrs is pretty horrific.
What I don't understand is I thought it must have been in the middle of nowhere but it was off a roundabout with loads of houses just over the road. Didn't anyone hear the crash?

[nicebloke1]

A car can crash anywhere/ run off the road, and if it happens late at night, whos to know where and when. People are just looking for any excuse now to wack the police for anything now.

[Old_Geezer]

Unsure how much credence the police would give to supply resource for a major search earlier simply because five young folk in a car going missing isn't common. Five young adults in a car could easily have spurred each other on to spontaneously go travelling for a few days. Although I grant you, they may have expected a phone call to be made to family. There was no evidence they'd needed to be looking for a hidden crash, so I doubt procedure will change much.

[jno]

Five young adults in a car could easily have spurred each other on to spontaneously go travelling for a few days.

I suppose they might have been found living it large in Ibiza, or just spontaneously squatting in Penge. But seriously, how often does that happen to a carful of people at once?

[choux]

Just one "missper" report on Saturday evening and a 2nd one on Sunday, apparently:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64872517
If that is correct I would say it is unfair on the police. Can you see car tracks on the soft verge of the crash search? There are aerial photos on the internet to look at. There was quite an area to cover on the car's journey.