A coroner has been asked to consider why a fire broke out in the engine of a BMW police car which crashed on the M6 near Carlisle, killing the extremely well-liked and popular officer.
PC Nick Dumphreys, 47, died on 26th January 2020 after his marked police vehicle crashed on the motorway between junctions 44 and 43, near Carlisle.
At the time of his tragic death, PC Dumphreys was driving a marked BMW 330 on blue-lights as he responded to an emergency call.
PC Dumphreys was an ‘advanced’ blue-light driver, having passed several weeks of intense driver-training before being allowed to drive the car in ‘response’ mode.
The officer’s inquest into the officer’s death was due to get underway in Cockermouth on Friday afternoon (3rd July).
But the barrister representing PC Dumphreys’ family, Sam Harmel, asked Cumbria’s Assistant Coroner Simon Ward to adjourn the case so there can be a more detailed investigation of what went wrong with the BMW that was being driven by PC Dumphreys.
Addressing the coroner, Mr Harmel said that the cause of the fatal crash was a fire in the BMW’s engine.
This ultimately led to the tragedy, said the barrister.
He told the coroner: “It is not known why an oil supply line became clogged due to the fourth axle crankshaft being displaced.”
It was this which is thought to have led to the fire and ultimately the crash, he said.
The barrister added: “It may be the fault of problems with the BMW engine, or it may be there was an issue around the maintenance of that vehicle by the constabulary.
“Further evidence is needed to consider both those issues.”
He said that PC Dumphreys’ widow Kat had “a very real concern” that there may be an ongoing risk.
For those reasons, said the barrister, the coroner needed to have detailed responses from both Cumbria police and from BMW.
He added that there had been a recall of the particular model of BMW involved in the fatal crash because they were deemed to have a “fire risk”.
Mr Ward agreed to adjourn the inquest, and the date of the new hearing has yet to be set.
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Oil line became clogged? I wonder if the bearing shell had moved as a lot of engines no longer have ‘keyed’ bearing shells, obstructing the oil way? This is a particular problem where the wrong grade of oil (too thick) has been used and the hydrostatic cling pulls the bearing shell round, putting 10w40 into an engine that should have 5w30 is enough to do it.