Page 12 - AUCSO Newsletter - Winter 2023

CASE STUDY: INCIDENT AT THE

UNIVERSITY OF DUNDEE

On 6th December at approximately
1300hrs Security Control received a
fire alarm notification in the
Dalhousie Building. This building is
primarily used for lectures and can
easily accommodated several
hundred students. The Duty Team
leader Lesley Nicoll despatched
CSOs to scene Gair Soutar, Graeme
Stewart, Jack Reilly and David
Melville.
Shortly after these calls started to
come in stating a vehicle had crashed
into the building, Sean Donaldson, Operations Leader who had been in the Control Room sensed
there may be a serious incident mobilised other members of the Estates team to go to Dalhousie
and assist. The first CSOs at scene quickly established an electronic vehicle had careered across
the main road and gone into a classroom in the building. Nearby soldiers from the TA Centre
were helping the uninjured driver out of the vehicle. Fortunately, the classroom was unoccupied.
Staff and students were evacuating the building because of the fire al
arm; a smoke detector had activated because of the dust from debris. A cordon was quickly
established by security team and emergency services were quickly on the scene. Obviously social
media was full of stories was it deliberate or
an accident? However, it was quickly
established by interviewing the driver and
CCTV it was an accident. He had stopped at
a junction to look for his house keys in the
car. Pictures clearly showed him stopping at
the junction for several seconds and he is
seen looking around interior of vehicle. As
he moves up to the dashboard, the car is
seen moving forward rapidly. It transpires,
he inadvertently placed foot on accelerator
causing vehicle to move forward rapidly
and crash into the wall. The Police charged
him with a lower offence of careless driving.

Within 45 minutes of the accident the Estates team had a structural engineer onsite undertaking
an assessment concerning any structural issues given what had occurred. Council Officials were
also present. The Fire Services had placed a retaining rope on the vehicle to prevent it falling
further into the building. Estates Team conducted isolation of services and gathering crowds were
kept at a distance. Within 2/3 hours remaining parts of building were deemed safe to collect
belongings. The following day all other parts of building were back in use.

The Fire Services leader assessed had there been anyone in the lecture room there would probably
have been fatalities given the car itself entered the building landed on desk and debris, such as

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