Lets forget they were driving a stolen car, but blame the police for chasing them.....our fault again.



Relatives of five young people who died yesterday when a stolen car they were travelling in crashed have demanded to know if police were chasing the vehicle immediately before the fatal accident.

Daniel Carwardine, a 17-year-old trainee mechanic, two other boys and two girls were all killed instantly when the blue Metro they were in left the road in St Leonards, East Sussex, and hit a wall.

Carwardine's father Lee, was among dozens of grieving relatives who were demanding answers.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission has launched an inquiry into the incident, which happened early yesterday morning.

Its probe is focusing on what happened between 1.40am, when the car was spotted by police, and 1.42am, when it careered into the wall of a house. It is thought a member of the public rang the police minutes before the crash after the Metro was involved in a collision with a cyclist, although the IPCC would not confirm the claim. IPCC deputy commissioner Mike Franklin would not say whether officers in a marked patrol car pursued the car.

'We understand that they [officers] were at the accident scene very quickly so they could not have been that far away', said Franklin.

An IPCC spokeswoman said its investigation would examine 'whether or not a police car was following the car, how close it was and whether or not its blue lights were on, for instance.

'At this stage it is too early to say what the exact involvement of the police and the vehicle was.'

Relatives laid flowers at the scene of the crash yesterday. Sussex police have passed the accident to the IPCC 'due to police involvement with the vehicle prior to the crash'.

...had been drinking and knocked a cyclist off his bike, and were driving like idiots at over 100mph. But noooooooooo, the kiddies were innocent little darlings and it was all the fault of the Police.



Sometimes I swear these people are taking the p*ss.

You can guarantee aswell, that had the kids still died, the police would be blamed for not stopping them first...

I don't know why you guys put up with this cr*p sometimes...

Orinoco, You took the words right out of my mouth mate.

This realy angers me. I have been involed in a serious accident last year with a stolen car and a taxi. I was driving my wagon when this car went through a red light, hit the taxi and the taxi bounced into me. This little bastard ran off. To cut a long storry short, I sat and held the hand of a lass in the taxi for over 2 hours while the fire brigade cut out. He was never caught

Anyone caught with a stolen car should be charged with conspiracy to murder. They dont give a s***** about ayone else on the road and drive like psyco's.

Thats my opinionand as for this proposed law were you will get a maximum sentance of 5 years for Casuse Death By Dangerous Driving is a joke. They should be charged with Man Slaughter

I dont think it matters what you do!! your still wrong!! a catch 22 situation!!!

I am sorry to hear of their demise but they shouldnt of been there in the first place!!


Steve

As I said we cant win

Parliament are passing a new offence of causing death by careless driving and it will be a mandatory 2 year minimum sentence soon if you kill someone whilst driving whilst disqualified.

Good

2 year minimum sentence...

...half automatically slashed off...

...then time off for good behaviour...

...gets out in 9 months.

Disgusting

The Independent Police Complaints Commission has decided there should be no misconduct action taken against the Sussex police officer involved in the road traffic collision in St Leonards on 29 October 2005, in which five young people died.

The Commission has also published the recommendations arising from the investigation into the collision, which was conducted by Sussex Police under IPCC direction and control.

The inquests into the deaths of the young people concluded on 9 February this year. The jury returned a narrative verdict and concluded that the officer’s actions were not a cause of the crash.

IPCC Commissioner Mike Franklin said: “I have decided that there should be no misconduct action taken against the officer who was involved in this incident. This decision agrees with the proposal put forward by Sussex Police.

"When making my decision, I carefully considered all the information available to me. This included the verdict given by the jury at inquest, and the evidence heard at the inquest that revealed confusion about the pursuit policy adopted by Sussex Police, both in terms of how it was communicated to patrol officers and how it was comprehended.

“It is clear that the officer concerned breached force policy by becoming engaged in the initial phase of a pursuit. However, it is also clear that, as a response trained driver, he genuinely believed that he was authorised to do so. In addition it became clear during the course of the evidence that the confusion in respect of this policy was shared by other officers. The confusion arose because Sussex Police have imposed additional criteria to authorise response drivers over and above the ACPO Pursuit Guidance. Consequently, whilst in breach of Sussex Policy, he was not in breach of the ACPO Guidance.

"Additionally, the breach of policy lasted only matter of seconds.

"Having regard to all the circumstances, I therefore believe it would be unreasonable to apply a misconduct sanction to the officer concerned.”

Commissioner Franklin added: “Following the inquest, I requested that Sussex Police submit to me a supplementary report outlining how they have clarified their pursuit policy, which they did. In an accompanying letter they assured me that they have undertaken an urgent review of the pursuit policy, under the direction of the Deputy Chief Constable.”

The report regarding the pursuit policy and the accompanying letter were supplementary to the main investigation report that was drafted by Sussex Police under IPCC direction and control, following conclusion of the IPCC-managed investigation and prior to the inquest.

Commissioner Franklin said: “When the inquest concluded I made a commitment to publishing the recommendations that have arisen from the IPCC-managed investigation, and to communicate any lessons learned from this investigation to Sussex Police and to the police service in general. I am in a position to do that today.”

The recommendations that arise from the IPCC-managed investigation are as follows:

• There was a substantial delay in the families of the young people who died being informed of their involvement in the collision. This delay was caused by an understandable desire by Sussex Police to correctly identify beyond doubt, each of the young people. However, this meant that some of the families became aware that their children were probably involved in the collision prior to official notification from the police. Sussex Police should therefore review the way in which this aspect of the investigation was managed to determine whether there are any lessons that can be learned or changes that could usefully be made for any similar multiple road traffic incidents in the future.

• The Road Traffic Department, unlike the Major Crime Branch who deal with homicide incidents, do not have the appropriate equipment to hand to enable them to cover either deceased individuals or vehicles at the scene of an accident. This meant that there was a prolonged period when the scene of the crash was within clear public view. Consideration should be given to purchasing screens or tents for deployment in future road traffic incidents, in the same way as they are in major crime investigations.

Commissioner Franklin added: “I will be contacting the Chief Constable of Sussex Police in the very near future to arrange to discuss these recommendations, and any other outstanding issues.”