TWO POLICE officers were last night honoured for their courage and bravery in the aftermath of a crash after a bus had smashed into the kitchen of a Dundee councillor’s home.

It was one of a number of acts of bravery above and beyond the call of duty performed by Tayside police officers and civilians in the last year that were marked at a ceremony at Baluniefield Training Centre, Dundee.

Arriving at the incident in Happyhillock in October, PCs Gordon Britton and David Young found the front of the Travel Dundee bus embedded in the house, having smashed through the outside wall and demolished the kitchen.

Passengers were climbing out through the rear emergency exit, but there was no sign of the driver.

Without fear for their own safety, Constables Britton and Young entered the house to search for anyone stuck inside. Once they were satisfied that the house was empty, they left as debris fell and the floor began to give way.

Still concerned for the driver, they re-entered the house and located the driver on the floor of the bus.

Fire crews arrived and safely cut free the driver, who was then taken to hospital. The house, belonging to Councillor Christina Roberts, was so badly damaged that it was later demolished.

Amazingly, Mrs Roberts, her husband Paul and her 18-year-old son, who were all in the living room of the house at the time, were uninjured in the incident.

PC Margaret Duffy and PC Donna Laing were honoured for treating a man who had suffered a heart attack after they attended at a house in Kirkton following a report of a disturbance in March last year.

While other people in the house were arguing, the officers carried out mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and chest compressions until the ambulance arrived.

Sadly, despite the prompt attention from the officers the man died a few days later.

Scott Mayberry was awarded a meritorious conduct certificate for chasing a man who had stolen a colleague’s handbag. Despite the culprit pulling a hammer on him, he snatched the bag from him, injuring his hand in the process.

George Farron and his teenage son Blair provided vital first aid to the driver of a car and his young son who were trapped in their vehicle after a head-on collision on the A9 last March.

Tayside Police equality and policy adviser, Wilma Canning, was commended in recognition of her work promoting the principles of equality and diversity within the Scottish Police Service and for her contribution to the national gender agenda for Scotland.

PC George Brand and Julie Allison were honoured for wading into the River Tay, close to South Balmossie Street, Dundee, to help a woman who had deliberately walked into the freezing water. PC Brand was recovering from a leg injury at the time.

Constables James Mitchell and Claire Quinn were commended for their calm and decisive manner when they forced their way into the kitchen of a flat where a man had barricaded himself in with the gas cooker on, saying he wanted to die.

PC Ryan Galloway, with the help of his two police dogs Yogi and Lance, carried out a search of a car that had been stopped by colleagues on the A90 Dundee to Forfar road in April last year, finding drugs in the driver’s foot well.

After Constable Galloway found a concealed plastic bag the passenger ran off and was traced hiding behind a tree by Lance. A substantial quantity of drugs were seized and two serious criminals were caught as a result their actions.

PC Michael Keenan and his dog Max disarmed and held a man suspected of shoplifting from a supermarket in the Craigie area of Dundee, who had threatened staff with a broken bottle.

Elaine Cargill, her husband John Cargill and Gavin Forgie all received awards for their help in arresting an attempted housebreaker in Arbroath. Mrs Cargill saw a man acting suspiciously at cars parked in the street outside her house and shouted to him when he entered her back garden.

The man ran off and while Mrs Cargill gave a detailed description of the man to the police her husband and his brother-in-law, Mr Forgie, tracked down the man trying to break into a house and after a chase the pair caught the man and handed him over to police.

Off-duty PC Brian Boath, intervened in a road traffic accident on Dundee’s Glamis Road in February last year and ensured the arrest of a man intent on fleeing the scene.