Ambulance 'failure' played role in motorbike death

The death of a motorcyclist who had to wait almost an hour for a paramedic following a crash was caused in part by a "failure" in the response time of an ambulance service, a coroner said.

Aaron Morris, 31, died about six hours after his motorbike collided with a car on 1 July 2022 in Esh Winning, near Durham.

Coroner Crispin Oliver was told it took 54 minutes for an ambulance to get to the crash due to high demand.

He heard evidence from one expert who suggested Mr Morris's chance of survival had been as high as 95% had he been treated in a timely manner.

The North East Ambulance Service's (NEAS) target for arrival at a scene was 18 minutes.

During the inquest, at Crook in County Durham, the coroner heard an air ambulance could have been sent to the scene earlier, but this did not happen.

He said a specialist paramedic, known as a clinical team leader (CTL), was not deployed to the crash.

Mr Oliver said: "It is highly likely that Aaron Morris would have survived had available specialist medical treatment been applied in a timely manner."

He added such treatment had not occurred speedily due to "overstretched resources" and the failure to deploy a CTL to the crash.

The inquest also heard that Mr Morris's pregnant wife, Samantha, came across the scene of the crash while returning from a hospital appointment.

It was also told the father-of-five experienced a cardiac arrest in the ambulance, which Mrs Morris directed to the hospital because the driver did not know the way.

Mr Oliver concluded: "It is highly likely that Aaron Morris would have survived had available specialist medical treatment been applied in a timely manner.

"Aaron Morris died from injuries sustained in a road traffic collision and failure of the response of the ambulance service, contributed to by neglect."

NEAS medical director Dr Kat Noble said the service "unreservedly apologise" for not providing the right care.

"We accept that opportunities were missed to deploy a clinical team leader to this incident," she said, adding the service fully accepts the coroner's findings and has taken a number of actions as a result of its investigations into Mr Morris's death.

Mrs Morris said the transparency shown by bodies such as NEAS was "appreciated".

"After hearing the evidence from Dr Noble... I would now feel confident dialling 999 and requesting a North East ambulance which I never thought I would say.

"I want to now focus on my children and moving forwards."

Additional reporting by PA Media.