Father’s body went undiscovered for 28 hours until family took matters into their own hands - now they want answers
A grieving family looks for answers after Nadeem Hussain's body went undiscovered for 28 hours
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For three minutes an SOS alert from an iPhone sat open in the Lancashire force control room.
It came from the car of Nadeem Hussain who had died after the car he was driving crashed down an embankment. Police say he died on impact.
That SOS message was closed after three minutes by Lancashire Police after they could not connect to Nadeem’s phone as there was no answer.
For the next 28 hours his family were the ones to search and eventually locate the body of the father-of-three who had remained hidden from view close to Junction 9 of the M61.
The 37-year-old’s family say they want to see an independent investigation into the circumstances leading up to and immediately after Nadeem’s death - despite the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) saying it should only be investigated locally.
As local journalists we’ve been asking questions as to how it is possible for a fatal crash to go undiscovered for 28 hours.
It perhaps says something that when that was confirmed by police it was met with a shrug by many, is that how desensitised we have become as a society?
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🏥 An influential group of councillors will ask the government to step in over a controversial decision by NHS bosses to close the children’s accident and emergency unit at Ormskirk Hospital. The facility is to move eight miles away to Southport Hospital in 2029 – a shift that health leaders say is necessary in order to reinstate round-the-clock emergency care for youngsters across West Lancashire and Sefton. However, Lancashire County Council’s health scrutiny committee has now formally requested that health and social care secretary Wes Streeting ‘calls in’ the plans to consider them for himself. He has the power to reverse the change, should he choose to use it. The cross-party group – made up of both county and district councillors – unanimously backed the move seeking his intervention on Monday. Members cited concerns over the process surrounding the NHS decision and questioned whether the shake-up was in “the best interests” of health services in West Lancashire. The young people’s A&E at Ormskirk and District General Hospital currently closes between midnight and 8am – its hours of operation having first been reduced at the height of the pandemic in 2020. There has been no emergency unit for children at Southport and Formby District General Hospital since 2003, while the adult emergency facility at Ormskirk shut in 2005.
Father’s body went undiscovered for 28 hours until family took matters into their own hands - now they want answers
By Ed Walker
The family of a Nelson man who lay dead at the side of the M61 for 28 hours before being discovered have urged the police watchdog to look at the actions of Lancashire Constabulary.
Nadeem Hussain died on impact - say police - when the Audi A3 he was driving left the motorway at 10pm on Saturday 21 March.
He was not found until shortly before 2am on Monday 23 March when members of his family, having climbed down the side of the motorway themselves, discovered the father-of-three.
His sister Nazma said: “No one is blaming the police for the crash, but for it to take 28 hours and him to be found by us – that is not right.
“It took a group of us, to go and find him and go down that embankment and find Nadeem dead on the side of the motorway. The police must answer about how it came to happen and why it took us to discover him.”
Lancashire Police confirmed they had also received an iPhone SOS message, which is set to trigger on severe impact, to the force control room when the crash took place on the Saturday evening.
A spokesperson said: “An Iphone crash SOS alert message was received by the force control room at shortly after 10pm on Saturday, March 21st but after an attempt to recontact the number this call was closed.”
