Road traffic incident - West Yorkshire Police, August 2022

On 18 August 2022, a car failed to stop for West Yorkshire Police officers when requested to do so. A pursuit did not take place as the officers were not appropriately authorised to undertake a pursuit. The car drove at speed through a red traffic light signal and collided with another car being driven by a member of the public correctly negotiating a crossroad junction. The car which failed to stop also collided with roadside furniture after the initial collision. One of the occupants was declared dead at the scene, while another occupant and the driver of the other car suffered injuries.

Our investigators attended the scene and post incident procedure and conducted a detailed examination. Vehicle-mounted camera footage and CCTV footage was analysed, along with the officer and witness accounts, police radio transmissions and the incident log.

The investigation concluded there was no indication any police officer may have behaved in a manner that would justify the bringing of disciplinary proceedings or committed a criminal offence. All officers were treated as witnesses and cooperated fully with this investigation.

We completed our investigation on 1 February 2023. 

During the inquest in December 2023, the coroner provided a verdict of accidental death for the man.

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. 

In this case, we did not identify any organisational learning for WYP.