North Wales Police has changed how it handles failed 999 calls made from mountains after two young climbers died when their phone calls were cut off. The force wrote a letter confirming its new policy, which instructs staff dealing with a silent or disconnected 999 call from a confirmed remote or mountainous location to consider alerting mountain rescue.
Climbers' final calls
Jayden Long, 19, and Eddie Hill, 20, had travelled from Norwich, Norfolk, to climb Snowdon, also known as Yr Wyddfa, in February. They parked in the Pen y Pass car park and began their ascent on February 18, although the route they took is not known, assistant coroner Sarah Riley, for the area of North West Wales, said.
Worsening weather forced the friends to turn back, a message from Mr Hill to his girlfriend showed. At 4.27pm, Mr Long rang North Wales Police, but the call was disconnected. On playback, he was heard saying 'hello' and 'can you hear me?' – before police tried to call him back unsuccessfully.
Delayed rescue response
Mountain rescue was not contacted by the force until 7.38pm – more than three hours later. The climbers were found dead at 11.04am the next day after falling down steep terrain covered in ice and snow, an inquest found.
The coroner ruled their deaths were accidental, but Ms Riley found there was no force-wide procedure guiding call handlers on what to do when dealing with calls from remote or mountainous areas. She also raised concerns about inadequate systems for sharing lessons learned from the incident. Ms Riley warned there was a 'significant risk of future deaths' unless action was taken.
New policy and response
In its letter, North Wales Police said the policy includes: 'In the event of a silent or discontinued 999 call being received from a remote/mountainous location, if the location is confirmed via EISEC (BT-confirmed auto data) or other means of confirmation of location (eg GoodSAM Location Services) then consideration should be given to making the mountain rescue team aware for consideration of deployment if appropriate and relevant.'
'Given the geography of North Wales, this action is proportionate as silent 999 calls from these locations, where the locations are confirmed, would be out of the ordinary.'
Jurgen Dissmann, chairman of Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team, said in a statement after the deaths: 'I would like to extend our most heartfelt condolences to the families and loved ones of the two men who have tragically lost their lives.'
'The team were tasked by North Wales Police and launched an extensive multi-agency operation in full winter conditions. Volunteers searched across challenging mountain terrain in snow and ice, working long hours through the night in difficult weather in an effort to locate the pair as quickly as possible.'
'Despite the determined and sustained commitment of everyone involved, we are deeply saddened that, despite all efforts, the outcome was not what we had hoped for.'
