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news
Broken bike (CC licensed image by garryknight, www.flickr.com)Injured cyclist froze to death after police couldn’t find her
An injured cyclist froze to death in a cemetery in Hull after police responding to a call from a member of the public.
The body of the woman, named locally as 53-year-old Jacqueline Parsons, was found by a dog walker in the East Yorkshire city’s Western Cemetery on the morning of Sunday 28 October.
The Hull Daily Mail reports that a post mortem established that she had died of hypothermia.
Two officers from Humberside Police searched the cemetery for her in response to a call at 4.50pm on Saturday from a member of the public who had discovered her injured in the cemetery.
Her brother told the newspaper: “It is bad enough to find out that I had lost a sister, and after hearing that you just hope that there was no pain.
"Then we found out that that not only was she in pain but she was on her own too."
He continued: “It was on Tuesday evening that I got this new information that actually the passer-by had seen my sister in distress. She was complaining about her leg and whether she broke it or not I don’t know. But she was in a lot of pain and she was shouting for help.
“The passer-by asked her if she wanted him to call ambulance and she said ‘no I want help.’ He left her there and went home and the way I’ve heard it is that it was an hour and a half before he called the police.
“The police went there, found nothing and then went away so this was a complete shock to us."
The man who initially found Ms Parsons was said to be “absolutely distraught” at learning of her death.
Mr Parsons said: “It’s a difficult thing for him that he has got to take forward with him and I wouldn’t like to be in his position.
“However, the surprise for me was the police because after looking at their statement there was no mention that they had got called out the previous evening. There was a woman on a bike in distress on Saturday evening and then lo and behold on Sunday morning there was a woman dead lying in the cemetery alongside her bike.
“It is just absolutely awful and the whole family is in complete shock at the moment.”
Humberside Police confirmed that the incident had been referred to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).
A spokesman for the force said: “A post-mortem has since been carried out and the woman’s death is not being treated as suspicious.
“We are linking the two calls together. We are now acting on behalf of HM Coroner to gather evidence on their behalf.
“We want to offer our condolences to the woman’s family at this difficult time.
“We referred this to the IOPC as is standard procedure,” he added.
“This has been passed back to our Professional Standards Department who will conduct a full assessment and investigation.”
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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10 comments
I guess the only excuse for the passer by would be they were elderly and didn't have a phone on them or something. All a bit odd.
The only other thing I can think of is the cyclist was distressed and came across as a crackpot.
Seems a bit odd that they couldn’t find any means to call an ambulance sooner, be it with their own mobile, that of a passer by, a payphone, someone in a shop... they could have walked to the police station that’s just over a mile away, for goodness’ sake.
I think it's a bit of a shame that the passer by didn't call an ambulance, I think that paramedic/ambulance staff, if sent, might have put a bit more effort into finding the poor lady.
Fuck, I was in the vicinity of this as were many thousands as the England rugby league International was on at the KCOM stadium which is minutes away. We exited the stadium just after 4:30pm (in the opposite direction) but many would have walked and driven past there. It was bitterly cold with strong winds that afternoon and didn't get better as the vening wore on
The cemetary in question is right next to a well populated area and two through roads, I can't understand how the police could not find her if they had actually searched the cemetary properly.
What an utterly awful way to die.
I hope the family find out exactly what went on, getting records of when the call was made and when the police acted and where they searched/where she was found must be fully revealed.
here's a google map, as you can see, not exactly off the beaten track!
Capture.JPG
Something not right about this. Passer-by was concerned enough to offer calling for an ambulance, but when asked for help goes home to mull it over for an hour and a half...? Weird.
Some people have no humanity or common decency towards their fellow man/woman.
If i had found her then i would of stayed with her until the abulance arrived if not gone out of my way to find someone who could stay with her till she was being attended to.
At the same time I think the guy who found her and walked away should get charged with leaving her for dead
At the same time im surprised the ambulance service didnt call him back and get him to guide them to her location unless they felt like it was a hoax and no ambulance was despatched in the first place???
It sounds like there could be possible failures on multiple levels.
I cant imagine the sadness the family of the deceased must be feeling.
You cnnot know the circumstances, what if they were elderly/frail themselves, what if they suspected it might be a lure to get mugged, what if they are not fully mentally able to understand the seriousness of the situation? We are reliant atm on the police version of events and timeline, instead you're throwing your two pennorth in against someone to be charged with leaving someone for dead when you have next to zero info and less story than the deceased family.. how could the passerby know she would die just because she'd fallen of her bike and was talking and apparently conscious, it appears they did not have a mobile phone given the alleged delay but again we don't know that.
Just a thought but instead of laying into someone who might not have being able to do more or didn't fully comprehend the situation OR possibly the police are talking bollocks with the timescale as they have been want to change stories to cover their arses in the past, we wait and see what the investigation throws up?
Glad you're not a prosecutor ffs!
FYI she didn't die because she fell off her bike. She died because the person who was her only contact and lifeline didn't call an ambulance for her sooner and she froze to death when the ambulance failed to locate her... That's even if one was sent out. I might not of known the exact circumstances but he or she didn't exactly go out of their way to help someone who was clearly in distress and in need of some help. If they didn't have a mobile phone then they could have gone out onto the main road and flagged down another passer by and gotten them to report it and call for an ambulance. There were so many chances that this Passer-by could of acted acted but didn't. That's only one side of the story though. The ambulance failing to find the injured person and not following it up with the person who called them needs to be investigated
Does it say they went home, put the kettle on and then mulled it over for ninety minutes? Maybe it took ninety minutes to get home?
(I have to admit, I never take my mobile with me when I walk the dog - I take it as an opportunity to go off-grid for a bit. And in This Modern Age, I think you can forget about asking to borrow someone's mobile even to make an urgent call if you don't have one with you...).
Nope. Nothing about a kettle.
Whether they were mid-way through a 3 hour dog walk or went home to put the kettle on doesn’t really matter. It’s the delay of 90mins (if true) that’s weird, given they seemed to have the means to call an ambulance earlier. Maybe there's a valid reason for it, but it’s odd that hasn’t been reported.