Fatal injury following police pursuit - Avon and Somerset Police, October 2019

In October 2019, three men were travelling in a stolen car when a police officer caught sight of the car and recognised it from a report on the police radio transmissions. The police started to follow it, before turning blue lights on to signal the car to stop. The stolen car did not stop and continued an attempt to evade the police. The pursuit ended approximately three minutes after the policer officer turned his blue light on, when the stolen car crashed into a lamppost and wall, overturned, and briefly caught fire. The driver of the car died in hospital, and both passengers sustained serious injuries.

We attended the scene and oversaw the forensic examination that took place. We obtained statements from relevant officers and police staff involved, and reviewed audio and visual evidence, including CCTV of the pursuit, and compared the actions of those involved to relevant guidance.

Our investigation concluded in November 2020. We waited for all proceedings to conclude before publishing our findings.

We concluded there was no indication that a person serving with the police may have committed a criminal offence or behaved in a manner justifying the bringing of disciplinary proceedings. We did find a performance matter for one member of staff and advised this be dealt with through management action.

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.

We identified some areas of improvement relating to data recorded by existing systems but no recommendations were issued under legislative powers.