Police pursuit of vehicle driving at speed – Kent Police, September 2018

At approximately 3.50am on 14 September 2018, a marked police van occupied by Kent Police officers witnessed a Toyota Yaris driving at speed near Canterbury Police Station.

The police officers began to pursue the Yaris and when the driver of the Yaris pulled the car in to a layby on the A2 the police van stopped alongside it. As the officers got out of their van the driver of the Yaris drove off. The officers followed activating the van’s lights and sirens, requesting pursuit authorisation. Officers then found the Yaris had crashed in Nethersole Road. The driver and front seat passenger died.

Our investigators attended the scene and the post incident procedure. We obtained statements from the officers involved, their body worn video footage was examined and the vehicle journey data recorder was downloaded and analysed.

All police officers were treated as witnesses during the course of our investigation.

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 and that the police pursuit prior to the fatal collision was carried out appropriately.

We completed our investigation in March 2019 but waited until the inquest in January 2020 before publishing our findings. The inquests determined the deaths were as a result of a road traffic incident.