The first preliminary hearing is to take place at an inquiry into the deaths of a mother and her partner who were left undiscovered for days after crashing off a motorway.

Lamara Bell, 25, and John Yuill, 38, died after the car they were in left the M9 near Stirling in July 2015.

They were left lying in their Renault Clio for three days before being discovered, despite police previously being alerted to the incident.

A preliminary hearing in the fatal accident inquiry (FAI) will take place at Stirling Sheriff Court on Friday.

When the crashed car was discovered on July 8 2015, Mr Yuill was pronounced dead and Ms Bell died four days later in hospital.

A member of the public called police to report the crashed car on July 5, but no action was taken until another member of the public noticed the car three days later, heard Ms Bell pleading for help, and called the police.

The FAI comes after the family of Ms Bell was awarded more than £1 million in damages from Police Scotland in a civil settlement last December.

Last September, the force was fined £100,000 at the High Court in Edinburgh after it pleaded guilty to health and safety failings which “materially contributed” to Ms Bell’s death.

The court heard Ms Bell pleaded for help after being found and would probably have survived had this happened sooner.

Police Scotland Chief Constable Sir Iain Livingstone apologised to the families following the court.

Similar to an inquest in England and Wales, a FAI is not a criminal inquiry and is used to establish facts rather than apportion blame.

Their purpose includes determining the cause of death, the circumstances in which the death occurred, and to establish what reasonable precautions could have been taken to minimise the risk of future deaths in similar circumstances.