The Police Ombudsman was called in to investigate the circumstances of a fatal road traffic accident near Newry on 14 December 2002. The Chief Constable asked the Police Ombudsman to investigate the accident because a police patrol car had attempted to follow the vehicle prior to it crashing.
The police officers who had been travelling in the patrol car told Police Ombudsman investigators that they had first noticed the vehicle when, during a routine patrol, they drove into the car park of a public bar at Hilltown Road, Newry at around 12.50am on 14 December 2002. As they entered the car park they noticed a vehicle leave the car park at speed and set off in the direction of Hilltown.
The officers followed the vehicle, which was observed after a short distance to turn onto Benagh Road. The officers said that as they followed the vehicle its taillights periodically disappeared out of view as it negotiated hills along the route.
Upon reaching Benagh Orange Hall the officers decided to turn back as they had lost sight of the vehicle. As they did so they noticed the headlights of a car in a field, which turned out to be a blue Renault 19 car on its roof. A male was found lying in the field. He told officers: "I was coming down the road and the steering seemed to go. I thought police were behind me."
The officers also located a female lying on her back about 20 feet from the vehicle. She was identified as the wife of the driver. Officers provided first aid and contacted an ambulance. The injured woman was taken to Daisy Hill Hospital in Newry, but was subsequently declared dead at 2.20am.
In the meantime, the driver of the car was arrested after failing a roadside breath test. However, two further samples of breath taken at Newry police station proved to be within the legal limit.
After being informed of the accident by police, Police Ombudsman investigators attended the scene and were able to visually examine the location of the vehicle, various items of debris and marks on the road surface. There were no witnesses to the accident.
A forensic scientist attended the scene the following day, and established that the sump of the vehicle had burst on a crest of the roadway 150m prior to the scene of the accident. The scientist indicated, however, that oil leaking from the sump would not have affected the grip of the vehicle on the road.
In a later statement to police, the driver of the vehicle stated that he had consumed two bottles of beer prior to the accident. He said he had become aware of police driving into the bar car park as he was setting off in the direction of a friend's house on the Benagh Road.
As he travelled along the Benagh Road at a speed of 35-40mph he said he came over the brow of a hill and, on applying the brakes, hit a hard object on the nearside verge, before overturning and coming to rest in a field. The man blamed either a slippery road surface or a failure in his steering for the accident. He was adamant that at no time had he been aware that police had followed him out of the car park.
A Police Ombudsman investigator subsequently travelled the route taken by the police car on the night of the incident. The investigator travelled at an average speed of around 35mph, noting that it took just over seven minutes to complete the journey. Analysis of police radio transmissions from that evening indicated that the time taken by police to cover the same distance on the night of the accident was three and a half minutes, indicating that the police vehicle had been travelling significantly faster than 35mph as it followed the car.
The investigation also established that the police car's blue lights had been switched on during the incident, but that its siren had not been used.
Outcome of investigation:
The Police Ombudsman, Mrs Nuala O'Loan, concluded that there was no evidence that police had driven or acted inappropriately in relation to this incident.
She said the officers had "quite correctly" attempted to follow the vehicle as it sped away from the bar, but "despite appropriate efforts, were unable to get close enough to be said to be in pursuit of the vehicle."
"No criticism is made of the officers' actions on that night," concluded Mrs O'Loan.