IPCC probes Gloucestershire police handling of 999 call
An investigation has begun into how Gloucestershire Police responded to a report of an accident near Cheltenham racecourse during Gold Cup week.
A motorist rang the police on 16 March saying her car had been hit by a bottle or a person while she was driving home.
Officers later found a 52-year-old man in a ditch with multiple injuries.
The incident has been referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) amid concerns about the handling of the emergency call.
The IPCC said officers who were assigned to the case first went to the area to make a search but could not find anything.
They then went to the woman's home in Bishop's Cleeve and questioned her about the incident.
The officers later went to the correct location with the woman and, more than two hours after the initial call, found the man lying in a ditch by the side of the road.
The 52-year-old, from Leeds, had several injuries including nine broken ribs, a punctured lung, three broken vertebrae in his lower back, a collapsed disc at the base of his neck, a broken shoulder bone and a bruised heart.
IPCC Commissioner Rebecca Marsh said: "There are a number of concerns about the police force's handling of the emergency call and subsequent actions and these will be thoroughly looked at by our own investigators."
The police subsequently arrested the 46-year-old woman on suspicion of failing to stop following a road traffic collision. She has been released on police bail.