Two police forces are to be investigated by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) after the families of five young people complained about delays in finding a crashed car.
Eve Smith and Darcy Ross, both 21, and Rafel Jeanne, 24, were killed when the Volkswagen Tiguan they were in left the road and collided with some trees on the outskirts of the Welsh capital, Cardiff, at the weekend.
Two other people in the car—Sophie Russon, 20, and Shane Loughlin, 32—are in critical condition in hospital after lying badly injured in the wreckage for up to 46 hours.
It is not clear when the car crashed into a wooded area off a roundabout on the A48(M) near St. Mellons.
The five young people had been at a social club in the Maesglas district of Newport on Friday night and then travelled 40 miles to the west to a caravan park at Trecco Bay in Porthcawl.
They were last seen at about 2 a.m. on Saturday in the Pentwyn area of Cardiff.
The three women were from Newport and the two men from Cardiff and the incident fell between two police forces—Gwent Police and South Wales Police.
At 7:34 p.m. on Saturday, police received the first missing person report and several more were made before 5:37 p.m. on Sunday, but Gwent Police did not issue a public appeal for help until 11 p.m. on Sunday.
Around an hour later the car was discovered, after a police helicopter became involved, and the two survivors were taken to hospital.
A candlelight vigil was held near the crash site on Tuesday evening and 1,000 people joined the families of the victims, which was followed by a fireworks display in memory of the dead.
Speedier Reaction Could Have Led to ‘Different Outcome’
“I like to think that if they got there sooner, it would have been a different outcome,” said Actie.At the vigil, Rachel O’Neill, 37, from Rumney, told the PA news agency: “It’s been heartbreaking to think that they were there for so long, for 46 hours, and that they were found by people and not even the police. It’s absolutely disgusting, and you just don’t know. There could have been some lives saved if they had moved faster.”
David Ford, a director of the IOPC, said, “After careful assessment of referrals from Gwent Police and South Wales Police, we have decided to independently investigate how police responded to the missing person reports.”
He added: “We will be examining what information police had, the grading given to any risk assessments, and the steps taken by police to locate the missing people prior to the Volkswagen Tiguan being found just after midnight on Monday.
“We will also consider what communication took place between the two forces and whether police action was appropriate and followed relevant policy and procedures,” Ford concluded.
Two men—Matthew Pace, 45, and his son Lewis, 26—told Sky News they found the car shortly before the police and said they spotted tyre marks leading off the road and into the woods.
Gwent Police’s Assistant Chief Constable Mark Hobrough and South Wales Police’s Assistant Chief Constable Jason Davies both said their thoughts were with the victims’ families.
Second Tragedy in 8 Years for Family
Eve Smith’s mother, Emma Borg, is in mourning for a daughter for the second time in eight years—in January 2015 another daughter, Xana Doyle, 19, was killed in a car crash.Doyle had accepted a lift back from a party from Sakhawat Ali, 23, and his cousin Shabaz Ali, 21.
Sakhawat Ali was over the drink-drive limit and had taken cocaine and cannabis when his cousin grabbed the car’s handbrake as a prank as the car sped along at 60 miles per hour.
The car overturned, jumped into the air, and landed on its roof, killing Doyle.
Sakhawat Ali was jailed for eight years and three months after pleading guilty to dangerous driving, aggravated vehicle taking, and driving with excess alcohol.
Shabaz Ali was jailed for seven years and three months after pleading guilty to “aggravated allowing to be carried involving a fatal accident.”
In 2020, Borg told a Sky TV documentary about her daughter’s death: “There’s something every day that makes you think about her. You’ve got to try to put it to the back of your mind, just close it off, or you wouldn’t be able to cope.”
