Death of a man after failure to stop for police – West Yorkshire Police, July 2019
On 7 July 2019, two West Yorkshire Police (WYP) officers were on duty in a marked police van. They noticed a car containing four young men where the manner of driving caused them concern. The officers followed the car for a short time while attempting to identify the owner of the car. The police attempted to stop the vehicle by illuminating their police van’s emergency blue lights. Upon doing so, the car drove off at speed. The officers passed this information to the WYP police control room. They informed the control room that they would not pursue the vehicle due to the police van not being a suitable vehicle to engage in a pursuit. The police continued driving in the same direction as the car, travelling around or under the speed limit. Further along the road they saw that the car had been involved in a collision with a lamp post. Emergency services were called which resulted in the attendance of the fire and rescue service and paramedics. The front seat passenger in the car was taken to a nearby hospital where he died.
WYP obtained witness statements from the surviving occupants of the car in addition to statements from the police officers involved. Our investigators obtained further witness statements from the police officers involved outlining their interaction with the car’s occupants and actions following the collision. We also obtained WYP video re-construction evidence to identify the location of travel and speeds of the car involved in the collision and the police van engaged in the initial contact. We also obtained copies of the WYP radio communications logs, police body worn video footage and scene images.
We completed our investigation in March 2020. We considered the officers’ actions alongside local and national police policies and found that they had complied with them as required. During the investigation there was no indication any WYP officer may have behaved in a manner that would justify the bringing of disciplinary proceedings or committed a criminal offence. We decided that there was no indication to suggest the performance of any person with the police was unsatisfactory and as such no further action was required. There was also no indication that the officers’ decisions and actions caused or contributed to the collision or the man’s death. We shared our findings with West Yorkshire Police who agreed with our conclusions. All officers were treated as witnesses and cooperated fully with this investigation.
We waited until all criminal proceedings were complete by West Yorkshire Police before publishing its outcome. WYP investigated the driver of the vehicle and in January 2021 he pleaded guilty to a number of driving offences including causing death by dangerous driving, causing death by driving while disqualified and causing death by driving while uninsured. He was sentenced to 6 years 8 months imprisonment and disqualified from driving for 5 years and required to take an extended re-test. In April 2021, the coronial process relating to the man’s death concluded.
Throughout this investigation, we carefully considered whether there were any opportunities for learning or improvement. In this case, we did not identify any learning opportunities.