IOPC investigation into police actions prior to the death of a teenager in Somerset

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) is investigating the actions of Avon and Somerset Police before a 17 year old girl died on the M5 in Somerset on Monday (11 November).

Tamzin Hall was being taken by two officers to a custody suite at Bridgwater in a police car at the time from an address in Taunton. 

The police car stopped on the northbound carriageway of the motorway, between junctions 25 and 24 just before 11pm. At this point Tamzin got out of the car and shortly afterwards was involved in a collision with a member of the public’s vehicle on the southbound carriageway. Although an ambulance was called and paramedics attended within a few minutes, Tamzin sadly died at the scene.

IOPC Director David Ford said:

“This was a truly tragic incident and my thoughts are with Tamzin’s family and friends and everyone affected by the events of that evening.  

“We are contacting her family to express our sympathies, explain our role, and set out how our investigation will progress. We will keep them fully updated as our investigation continues.

“Our role is to independently investigate all the circumstances surrounding this incident.

“As soon as we were notified by Avon and Somerset Police, we sent our investigators to the police post incident procedure to begin gathering evidence.”

Our investigation is at an early stage. So far, we have initial accounts from officers involved and we are obtaining statements from several witnesses.

The coroner has been informed, and a post-mortem was carried out this afternoon.