Collision after pursuit is abandoned - Lancashire Constabulary, July 2017

On 1 July 2017, in the Whitworth area, an officer from Lancashire Constabulary attempted to stop a car they suspected was being driven by a disqualified driver. The driver failed to stop when indicated to do so and increased their speed in an apparent attempt to make off from the patrol. An initial phase pursuit was commenced and a further patrol was able to take up position behind the pursuit. The Force Incident Manager (FIM) quickly identified that there were no resources ahead of the pursuit to try to bring it to a stop or take over from the initial phase. The FIM instructed the pursuing officer to abandon the pursuit, and the officer obeyed the instruction. The officer continued to travel in the direction the car had been heading and, immediately after emerging round a bend in the road, came across the car. It had collided with the gable end of a house. The driver had fled from the scene on foot, leaving the front-seat passenger with life-changing injuries, the rear-seat passenger seriously injured, and both entrapped in the car. The driver was later arrested, charged and convicted of several offences in relation to the pursuit and collision.

During the investigation, we obtained relevant evidence from the Lancashire Constabulary criminal investigation and an independent Greater Manchester Police Serious Collision Investigation. We gathered officer accounts and other evidence relating to recent previous police contact with the car and the driver of the car at the time of the collision. We obtained accounts from the two officers involved in the pursuit, the FIM and the officer mentoring him at the time. We reviewed the radio transmission and the data from the pursuing police vehicle and CCTV from the route of the pursuit, along with national guidance on roads policing, local policy and procedures and legislation.

The Investigator formed the opinion that there was no evidence to suggest that Lancashire Constabulary’s actions caused or contributed to the serious injury of the passengers: the evidence indicated that the driver had chosen to fail to stop for the police when legally required and attempted to flee at excess speed, resulting in the collision.