Road traffic collision between marked police car and pedestrians - Devon and Cornwall Police, November 2019

At 3.30pm on 28th November 2019, an officer in a marked Devon and Cornwall Police vehicle responded to a report of a traffic incident at a local school. At the time of the collision, the officer had left the police station with his emergency warning equipment activated. He overtook a number of vehicles prior to entering a mini roundabout where he struck another vehicle that entered the roundabout on his left. The collision saw his vehicle change course and collide with another stationary vehicle. The police vehicle rebounded across the road, colliding with two pedestrians and causing them significant injuries. The officer’s recorded speed immediately prior to the collision was 35.8mph.

We began an independent investigation. We took accounts from eyewitnesses to the collision, and interviewed the police driver under criminal and misconduct caution. We also obtained and reviewed the vehicle data recorder, and commissioned reports from a forensic collision investigator. The vehicle was also examined by an officer in the Road Policing Team.

During the investigation, we considered that there was an indication that an officer may have behaved in a manner that would justify disciplinary proceedings and the officer was duly served with a notice of investigation under Regulation 16 of the Police (Complaints and Misconduct) Regulations 2012.

Having reviewed all of the evidence and having considered the matter at length, our opinion was that the officer had no case to answer for misconduct or for gross misconduct.

We identified one area of organisational learning for the force who agreed that this learning and messaging should be considered as part of driver training and traffic investigations.