Man died after road traffic collision - Durham Constabulary, October 2019

We began an investigation following a mandatory referral from Durham Constabulary in  October 2019 after a man died following a police pursuit. 

The evidence showed that on the day in question an off-duty police officer spotted a wanted man driving a car. At the time the man, who had never held a driving license and was disqualified from driving, was wanted by police for burglary and failure to attend court. The police driver located him on Front Street at 2.30pm. The car drove away from the police vehicle and a pursuit was authorised.

A short time later, at 2.34pm, the car was involved in a collision with a another car being driven by a member of the public at the junction of Edward Street and St Paul’s Street. It again failed to stop and the pursuit continued.

At 2.36pm, the car was travelling along Central Drive and then turned on to Hawthorn Road heading directly towards a brick wall. As the car slowed, the police car, which was travelling closely behind, moved to the car's offside.

In their statements, the police driver told IOPC investigators this was to prevent the car being used to “reverse ram” the police car and to cut off a potential escape route for the driver. They added they had not expected the man to exit the car while it was still moving.
While both cars were still in motion, the man got out of the car using the driver’s door and ran across the path of the police car. As he did so he appeared to stumble and was struck by the front of the police car.

He suffered fatal injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene.

We reviewed a substantial amount of evidence, including police dash-cam, body-worn video and CCTV footage. We also spoke to a significant number of witnesses, including members of the public and police, and reviewed the relevant police policies, training and guidance.

In November 2019, we informed the driver of the police vehicle that they were under investigation for a potential driving offence, as well as alleged breaches of the police standards of professional behaviour.

On conclusion of the investigation, we determined there was sufficient evidence to indicate the police officer may have committed a criminal offence and, as required by law, made a referral to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

At that time, we informed Durham Constabulary and the man's family of our provisional opinion that a panel could conclude that the driver’s actions amounted to gross misconduct.

In December 2020, we received a detailed response from Durham Constabulary challenging this view. Following a careful review of the evidence, including additional external information requested following the conclusion of the investigation, in April 2021 we informed the relevant parties of our decision that the officer had no case to answer in respect of their conduct.

In October 2021, the CPS informed us that it would not be authorising charges against the officer. A Victim’s Right to Review of the CPS decision not to charge, requested by the family, was not upheld and we were notified of this decision in March 2022.

At conclusion of the investigation in July 2020, we found no case to answer for the driver of a Durham Constabulary car involved.

An inquest, which concluded in September, returned a narrative conclusion, stating the man died as a result of misadventure.

We did not identifying any organisational learning from this investigation.