Norfolk police officer won't face disciplinary action following Suffolk crash
An investigation found he'd suffered a medical episode - he failed to stop at the scene
Last updated 9th Jun 2023
The Chief Constable of Norfolk Police has said sorry - after an officer crashed into a member of the public in north Suffolk, before leaving the scene.
This happened in March last year on the A146 at Barnby in Suffolk as the officers were returning to their station at the end of their shift on Saturday 5 March 2022.
The police vehicle, a marked BMW X5, was involved in a collision with an Audi A1 and failed to stop at the scene.
No one was injured.
The passenger of the police car reported the incident to their supervisor at the start of his shift the following day, Sunday 6 March 2022.
Norfolk Police says once the incident was reported, a full investigation was launched.
That's concluded and determined the police driver suffered a medical episode behind the wheel, and won't face a disciplinary hearing, whilst the passenger officer will face a misconduct probe for failing to report the accident the same day.
Norfolk’s Chief Constable Paul Sanford said: “We carried out a thorough criminal investigation, which was independently reviewed by another force. A full misconduct investigation has also been carried out.
“Based on the consideration of all available evidence and after liaison with the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), we brought charges against the driver for careless driving, failing to stop and failing to report a collision.
“Reports from two independent consultants established the driver had experienced a medical episode behind the wheel, and because of the condition is unlikely to have known what was happening at the time of the incident or have any recollection of it.
"As a result of this expert evidence, the Crown Prosecution Service discontinued the criminal case.
“In respect of the misconduct investigation, having considered all the evidence, and in line with local and national policy, it concluded the driver had no case to answer.
"However, the passenger does have a case to answer for misconduct for not reporting the incident immediately. We believe the conduct of this officer fell below the high standards we expect, and misconduct proceedings are ongoing. As a result, it would be inappropriate for me to comment further, until this has been finalised.
“In this case, we have taken the action we could, given the evidence we were presented with. I’m always personally disappointed and hurt when we get things wrong, but when we do, we always take action where we can.
“We deal with hundreds of calls a day and in the vast majority provide an exceptional service that I’m proud of. In this incident standards fell beneath what he would expect, and we have responded proportionately.”