London Ambulance Service took 27 minutes to reach venue because satnavs had not been updated since 2012 Games

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

A 60-year-old cyclist died after three ambulances failed to find the Olympic velodrome because their satnavs had not been updated.

The man collapsed in the venue’s changing room on 18 August last year after completing a cycling session at the indoor track, which is regarded as the world’s fastest and is where Team GB won seven gold medals at the 2012 London Olympics.

A call was made to 999 at 5.19pm, when the cyclist was reported to be experiencing chest pains.

The Evening Standard reported that velodrome staff administered first aid and attempted to restart his heart while they waited for paramedics.

But by the time the first paramedics from the London Ambulance Service (LAS) arrived, 27 minutes later, the cyclist had gone into cardiac arrest. He is believed to have been taken to a nearby hospital but was formally pronounced dead.



Although the LAS dispatched three vehicles – two emergency ambulances and an advanced paramedic in a fast-response car – it took more than three times the eight-minute NHS target for any of them to get to the scene of the incident.

According to a report by the LAS, the problem was a result of the satellite navigation system in the ambulances not having been updated with roads built in the Olympic Park in Stratford, east London, following the 2012 Games.

“The access to E20 Olympic Park (in particular the velodrome) is difficult, especially for crews not used to the area,” the report said.

“LAS satnavs are updated on a regular basis but may not keep up with the pace of property development and are reliant on individual postcodes being registered in a timely fashion.”

Fenella Wrigley, the medical director of the LAS, told the Standard: “We responded to reports of a patient with chest pain at Lee Valley VeloPark last August. We are very sorry for the delay in reaching the patient.

“Following this incident, we have looked into the circumstances around the delay and have taken steps to improve knowledge of the area to minimise future risk.

“All of our staff have been made aware of the changes to road networks in the area. In addition, our response-mapping books and a number of our systems now detail the surrounding area.”

Vibrant Partnerships, which operates the venue on behalf of Lee Valley Regional Park Authority, said: “A 60-year-old man was taken ill at Lee Valley VeloPark on 18 August. He had completed a track-cycling session in the velodrome. After he returned to the changing room he began to feel unwell.

“Staff at the centre attended to him and provided medical support – including with a defibrillator – until an ambulance arrived. Sadly, he died later in hospital.”

Last week, it was revealed that the deaths of 35 people in the past five years were linked to ambulance delays of up to six hours and mistakes by 999 call handlers and ambulance crew.

Of the 35 deaths, 10 involved the LAS, while the North West ambulance service had seven, and the ambulance services covering Wales, the east of England and the east Midlands each had three.

The LAS reported 62 serious incidents last year, up 41% on the previous year.

It attended 3,978 cardiac arrests between April 2015 and February of this year. New research found that survival rates during these incidents fell from 9% to 7% when the response time exceeded the eight-minute target.

In November, the LAS became the first 999 trust in England to be rated “inadequate” and put in special measures by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), which expressed “serious concerns” about the way it might respond to terrorism and other mass-casualty emergencies.

The CQC also said major incident protocols, which were meant to be reviewed annually, had not been amended since July 2012, the month the London Olympics started.

Some LAS staff said they were unaware of major incident procedures and most ambulance crews had not been trained in these since the pre-Olympic rehearsals.