Inquiry into M9 crash deaths of mum and partner to get under way

A fatal accident inquiry gets under way on Monday into the deaths of two people who died on the M9 seven years ago.

Lamara Bell, 25, and John Yuill, 28, both died after the car they were in crashed on the motorway near Stirling in July 2015.

They were left lying in their Renault Clio for three days before being discovered, despite police previously being alerted to the incident.

The FAI comes after the family of Ms Bell was awarded more than £1m in damages from Police Scotland in a civil settlement in December 2021.

Last September, the force was fined £100,000 at the High Court in Edinburgh after it pleaded guilty to health and safety failings which “materially contributed” to Ms Bell’s death.

The court heard Ms Bell pleaded for help after being found and would probably have survived had this happened sooner.

Former Police Scotland chief constable Sir Iain Livingstone apologised to the families following the court case.

A member of the public had reported the crashed vehicle to police on July 5, but no action was taken until another member of the public noticed the car three days later, heard Ms Bell pleading for help, and called the police.

Similar to an inquest in England and Wales, an FAI is not a criminal inquiry and is used to establish facts rather than apportion blame.

Their purpose includes determining the cause of death, the circumstances in which the death occurred, and to establish what reasonable precautions could have been taken to minimise the risk of future deaths in similar circumstances.