Road traffic collision following pursuit - Avon and Somerset Constabulary, February 2019

During the afternoon of 9 February 2019, an Avon and Somerset Constabulary officer was driving with another officer in a marked police vehicle in Weston-Super-Mare town centre. The officer’s attention was drawn to the driver of a white Audi vehicle who appeared to be acting in a suspicious manner when he attempted to hide his face from the officer. The police officer turned his car around and followed the Audi a short distance before the driver of the Audi accelerated rapidly. Within a few seconds, the Audi crashed into two vehicles. The driver of one of these vehicles suffered a broken arm. The driver of the Audi fled the scene.

Our investigators considered the actions of the police officers involved in the incident and obtained accounts from a number of witnesses, including the officers involved. We also reviewed body-worn video footage and mapping of the officers’ radios. We reviewed all evidence in line with College of Policing guidance.

The evidence indicated that the driver of the Audi accelerated rapidly and drove in a dangerous manner. The trigger for that would appear to be that he became aware he had come to the attention of the police officers. While it appears the accident may not have happened had the police driver ignored their suspicions regarding the driver of the Audi, this would have constituted a failure to act on his part.

The initial response of the police driver was low key as he attempted to gain information necessary to conduct intelligence checks on the Audi vehicle. The situation developed very rapidly and we found no evidence to contradict the officers’ accounts that the driver of the Audi increased his speed before the police officers activated their lights and sirens.

We did not consider there was any evidence to support a finding that the officers could have prevented the accident.

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

We completed our investigation in April 2019 but waited until criminal proceedings against the driver of the Audi had completed, in early 2020, to publish its outcome.