Couple near Banbury say they were 'failed' by emergency services after horror car crash

Charles and Laura Robarts from Balscote were driving on the Sun Rising Hill (A422) road near Edgehill at around 8pm on Saturday September 30 when they had a head-on collision with another vehicle.

Thankfully, neither party suffered significant injuries, but the accident was severe enough for the other car to burst into flames and for the couple’s car to be written off, with both cars blocking the busy road.

Laura called the emergency services as soon as they were able to after the accident, but they were still waiting for a response by the time they had made a third 999 call around 20 minutes later.

Laura said: “We were told that they were deciding whether to send Warwickshire or Thames Valley Police.”

When police did arrive on the scene, Laura says that they were armed response officers who had travelled from Warwick, almost twice the distance from Banbury, to the scene.

Laura added: “When the police finally arrived, it was two armed response officers who didn’t know how to deal with the situation. They didn’t take any statements, photographs, or breathalyse anybody.”

The couple was informed that when they reported the accident to 999, an operator made the decision about which county’s emergency services dealt with the incident.

Due to the crash taking place roughly a mile and a half into Warwickshire, the operator handed over the responsibilities to Warwickshire Police and Warwickshire Fire and Rescue.

During the hour and a half after the couple waited after the accident, they say that no one from the fire service arrived on the scene, and the other car was still ablaze when they were leaving the site.

Laura said: "Thankfully, no one was injured, and that is the main thing to not lose sight of; it was just very unusual because the emergency services are usually very good, and I’m sure an ambulance would have arrived if we had been injured.

"It was just such a ridiculous situation in a country as small as ours that services are not able to cross county boundaries. The police service failed us all with their totally inadequate response, and the fire service failed us all by not responding at all.

"It seems they just would not allocate assistance to us due to their little border dispute.”

In response to the accusation made by Charles and Laura, Warwickshire Police said: “This is currently subject to a complaint. Warwickshire officers were on scene within 31 minutes of the force receiving the report."

Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue responded by saying :”Although Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service took the call initially – September 30 at 20:41 hours – as the location given was in Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service’ area, our control room passed the call over to our colleagues at Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service. This is standard operating practice.”

Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service said: “The initial call had gone to Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service due to the incident location.

“At the time of the incident our nearest appliances were already committed to rescuing a person trapped in their vehicle following a road traffic collision. Appliances from another station were deployed, but due to the remoteness of the incident it was difficult to find, and this unfortunately resulted in a longer response time.”