Collision between police motorcyclist and pedestrian - Metropolitan Police Service, June 2019

In June 2019, the Royalty and Specialist Protection (RaSP) command in the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) was responsible for escorting members of the royal family to Windsor. While travelling along Upper Richmond Road West, in west London, a special escort motorcyclist collided with a member of the public at a pedestrian crossing. The member of the public suffered serious non-fatal injuries.

This was referred to us as a Death or Serious Injury matter by the MPS.

Our investigators attended the scene. We obtained witness statements from all RaSP police officers in the escort and from members of the public at the scene. We also obtained radio transmissions.

Evidence showed that the MPS motorcyclist attempted to implement an offside right turn to prevent the escort becoming stationary in traffic. Specialist Escort Group (SEG) riders are entitled to make use of legal exemptions for a justified police purpose. The police motorcyclist stated he used hand and arm signals, as well as whistle blasts, to warn pedestrians observed on the pavement. His and other witnesses’ accounts suggested the traffic lights were green for vehicles when the member of the public stepped out into the road.

Evidence also indicated that the police motorcyclist contravened the ‘keep left’ arrow and drove through the crossing as the member of the public stepped out into the road from their right. The motorcyclist stated he braked and swerved right, but the member of the public collided with the front, left-hand side of the motorcycle. The MPS motorcyclist stated he was travelling at low speed at the time of the collision and this was supported by witness accounts, the vehicle examination and collision report. After reviewing the standard operating procedures and applicable training, we found that the actions of the police motorcyclist were in line with these.

Based on the evidence available, we found no indication that any person serving with the police may have behaved in a manner that would justify the bringing of disciplinary proceedings, or had committed a criminal offence.

We carefully considered whether there were any learning opportunities arising from the investigation. We make learning recommendations to improve policing and public confidence in the police complaints system, and prevent a recurrence of similar incidents.

In this case we identified five areas of informal learning relating to cameras, radio communications and recording, audible warnings and policy on self-driving principals. We completed our investigation in December 2019.