A “CATALOGUE of errors” meant a best man involved in a car crash while headed to a wedding waited more than 90 minutes for an ambulance.

Best man Christian Connolly, groom James Gerrard, an usher and Mr Connolly’s father were involved in the crash when travelling to the wedding on April 26 last year near Faringdon.

Mr Gerrard narrowly escaped injury and was able to marry 28-year-old Lucy Gerrard, nee Sly, at All Saints Church in Coleshill, near Faringdon. But Mr Connolly had to go to Great Western Hospital in Swindon for treatment after suffering head injuries that resulted in bleeding on the brain.

The first of three ambulances took nearly an hour to arrive at the scene and the final one, which took Mr Connolly to hospital, arrived one hour and 44 minutes after the 999 call, made at 1.36pm that day.

The initial call was taken by South Western Ambulance Service but took 10 minutes to be transferred to South Central Ambulance Service.

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An investigation conducted by South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS) found four ambulances were out of service at the time of the call and the second ambulance was delayed by six minutes after staff finished their meal break. Mrs Gerrard said: “It’s a bit more important to get an ambulance to someone with a head injury than finishing your lunch break. It’s just atrocious.”

Carol Sly, mother of the bride, said: “If the incident was life threatening somebody could’ve died.”

Labour MP for Oxford East Andrew Smith described the day as a “catalogue of errors” and said lessons must be learnt.

Prime Minister David Cameron said: “The time it takes to respond to a life threatening event is critical and clearly there are important lessons that need to be learnt from this incident.”

A spokesman for SCAS said: “We would like to say sorry for the delay and that on this occasion the service that we aim to achieve was not of the standard we set ourselves and strive to deliver for every patient.

“We have highlighted some points of learning which we have already implemented and, where relevant, shared with our partner organisations. These learning points will help us improve our service provision and patient care in the future.”