Collision between a police vehicle and a pedestrian - Metropolitan Police Service, October 2017

On 30 October 2017, two police officers responded to an incident in north London. They made their way to the incident in a marked Ford transit police van. On arrival, one officer got out of the van to speak to two men suspected to be involved in the incident. The other officer reversed the van to where his colleague was. In the process, the vehicle collided with one of the men, who sustained serious injuries.

Our investigators attended the post-incident procedure for this incident on 30 October 2017, where they obtained statements from the officers involved. During the subsequent investigation, investigators reviewed the officers’ body-worn video, interviewed several witnesses, including the injured man, analysed the collision report and reviewed the relevant force policies and procedures.

Based on the evidence available, and after consideration of the force’s rationale, we were of the opinion that the officer had made a mistake arising from a momentary lapse of consideration and concentration, which led to a flawed risk assessment.

The force proposed to deal with this through management action for the officer. We agreed that their proposal was appropriate in the circumstances.