Police took two days to find dead driver

The crashed car was found in a field just off Hurst Lane

A police force which took two days to find the scene of a fatal crash has referred itself to the police watchdog.

The West Mercia force said it received two automated collision detection alerts from a mobile phone on Sunday, but when officers went to the location identified no vehicle was found.

Then, just before 16:00 BST on Tuesday, a passer-by found a crashed Jaguar XF in a field on Hurst Lane just off the A449 in Worcestershire and close to Fernhill Heath.

The police said the driver of the car, a man from Kidderminster in his 20s, had died and the case would be looked at by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).

The force has not revealed whether the vehicle was discovered at the same location identified by at least one of the automatic alerts.

Some smart phones and watches use sensors which can detect if they have come to a sudden or violent stop and then alert emergency services, but they can also produce false alarms.

The police said the first alert came in at 03:00 on Sunday and the second that afternoon.

Searches of the area were carried out on both occasions, but officers could not find a vehicle.

When the crashed car was eventually found, two days later, the police closed off a section of the eastbound A449 between the Claines roundabout and the junction with the M5 for several hours.

Ch Supt Gareth Morris said the referral was "standard practice", but the force understood "the need and value in independent oversight and in giving the man's family answers to what happened and what action we took".

"Our thoughts are with them," he added.