We could have helped Alison - cave expert

CAVE rescue experts should have been called to a mineshaft after a woman fell down it, an inquiry into her death has heard.

Alan Jeffreys, of the Scottish Cave Rescue Organisation, said the group had practised similar operations and two of his team were hospital consultants.

Mr Jeffreys was giving evidence at a re-opened fatal accident inquiry into the death of Alison Hume, 44, who had a heart attack after lying for six hours in the shaft near her home in Galston, Ayrshire.

The inquiry earlier heard Mrs Hume's rescue was delayed as firefighters who volunteered to be lowered down the 60ft shaft were over-ruled by senior officers on health and safety grounds.

Mr Jeffreys, a former police officer, said the first he knew of the tragedy in July 2008 was when he saw media reports of the death of Mrs Hume, a lawyer and mother-of-two.

He told the inquiry at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court yesterday: "When an incident like this occurs I would expect at least to be put on stand-by, if not called out."

Mr Jeffreys said it was easy to be "forgotten to death" by police control rooms, adding: "Obviously we can't make any opinion as to the conduct of the rescue because none of us were there. But we have had practices before and after the incident."

The inquiry heard the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland recognised Scottish Cave Rescue as the lead organisation for cave rescue operations. Equipment was stored at Winchburgh for easy access to the M8 and M9 motorways.

Mr Jeffreys said the Edinburgh-based group took call-outs from Lothian and Borders Police but delegated the first call to local mountain rescuers.

"If they get out of their depth we expect them to contact us for rescues underground," he added.

But Strathclyde Police did not call the group, the inquiry heard.

Nancy Beresford, depute fiscal for the Crown, asked Mr Jeffreys if his group was "fairly low in the pecking order" and its details "filed away and forgotten about".

He replied: "I'm not sure what the answer to that is."

Mr Jeffreys said the risk of dangerous gases normally ruled out mineshaft rescues for Scottish Cave Rescue.

But he added: "The press reports said Mrs Hume was alive when rescue services got there so it would suggest there was no foul air down there so yes, we did think it was in our territory."

Mrs Beresford asked what the team's reaction would be if police told them it was too dangerous for a rescue.

Mr Jeffreys said: "If we consider it is at least safe to get down to the casualty we would argue quite strongly that we could tackle it. If we could humanly get down there we would rather do that than not."

The inquiry earlier heard Mrs Hume had developed hypothermia by the time a police rescue team got her to the surface.Former Sergeant Ian Maitland, who led Strathclyde Police Mountain Rescue team at the incident, said he had not called out Scottish Cave Rescue because he understood "they would be travelling from the east coast and they were not a blue light organisation.

"I was quite happy, having seen the set-up of the locus, that we had equipment and personnel capable of dealing with the situation."

Mr Maitland added: "In my own experience there was nothing I would have considered cave rescue suitable for."

Sheriff Desmond Leslie will issue his written findings at a later date.