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UK: Police car chase deaths triple

01 May 2002

The Police Complaints Authority (PCA) has published a report, Fatal Pursuit. Investigation of Road Traffic Incidents (RTI's) involving police vehicles, 1998-2001 which shows that deaths in accidents resulting from police car chases have tripled over the past four years. According to the PCA investigation 30 people were killed in police-chase crashes in the nine months up until January 2002, compared with nine deaths during the year 1997-1998. The inquiry examined 85 collisions involving 64 pursuits since 1998 that resulted in 91 deaths and concluded that: "There is inadequate risk assessment taking place in many pursuits/follows resulting in risky decisions taken by police drivers..." The report also insists that pursuits "undertaken by unmarked police cars...and convoys of police vehicles" should be prohibited. The key conclusion from the study is that: "the police continue to engage in too many pursuits/follows that endanger public safety and that the most effective way to reduce this is by increasing management control on the evolution of pursuits and reducing officer discretion about both initiating and continuing with pursuits. Forces may need to consider whether officers who pursue without control room permission, or who fail to adequately communicate risk, or who fail to pull over when instructed to call off a chase by the control room, should be at risk of being disciplined as a result."

Police Complaints Authority "Fatal Pursuit. Investigation of Road Traffic Incidents (RTI's) involving police vehicles, 1998-2001: Identifying common factors and the lessons to be learned" 2002 (www.pca.gov.uk)