A former West Mercia Police officer has been convicted of causing death by careless driving, following a seven-day trial at Worcester Crown Court yesterday that finished on 18th August.
The outcome follows an investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).
PC Jamie Holloway, 50, was found guilty of causing the death of David Shaw on 28 May 2018.
PC Holloway was driving a double-crewed, unmarked BMW X5 police car and responding to an emergency call when involved in a collision at around 2.50 pm with a Ford Fiesta driven by 53-year-old Mr Shaw on the northbound carriageway of the A449 near Hartlebury, Worcestershire.
Mr Shaw sadly died in hospital from injuries sustained in the collision days later on 10 June.
The IOPC began an investigation following a referral from West Mercia Police and examined the circumstances of the accident and the speed and manner of PC Holloway’s driving.
During the investigation, investigators interviewed PC Holloway, took statements from several witnesses, obtained expert evidence from a forensic collision investigator, and reviewed dashcam footage and information from the police car data recorder.
PC Holloway was an advanced police driver and the police car’s emergency lights and sirens were activated at the time.
The investigation found that PC Holloway’s BMW was travelling at 103mph and began heavily braking 60 metres prior to the collision. At the time of impact, the speed of the police car was 74mph.
The Fiesta, travelling at 37mph, had signalled and pulled out into the offside lane of the dual carriageway when the police car struck it from behind.
IOPC regional director Derrick Campbell said:
“I offer my sincere condolences again to the family of David Shaw at this time. We rely on police officers to attend incidents urgently, but they are required to take into account the safety of other road users. Force policy permits advanced drivers to drive at any speed but with the expectation that they can justify the necessity, proportionality and reasonableness of their actions and the associated speeds.
“PC Holloway was driving at speeds up to 110mph on a road with a 50mph speed limit.
“Our view was that the manner of PC Holloway’s driving contributed to the collision and Mr Shaw’s subsequent death. The evidence indicated that the officer did not have sufficient regard to other road users when driving along that part of the road.
“The speed of driving involved a greater risk than necessary and meant, once the Fiesta had pulled out, a collision was sadly unavoidable.”
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Totally disagree.
While it is sad Mr Shaw lost his life, but if he bothered to check his mirrors before moving out, he’d have seen the cop car, and wouldn’t have changed lanes
For me, this is a prime example of driving without due care and attention.
He Mr Shaw followed, MIRROR, SIGNAL, MIRROR, MANEUVER, he’d still be alive.
Even if the police driver had been driving at 80 or 70, me Shaw would’ve still collided due to HIS lack of road awareness.
I think this is another sad case of blame to police to look good to the public. Kowtowing like this does the police no good at all, and makes it easier for blame to be removed from themselves, such as this case.
A police car on blues travelling quickly is not unusual. Pulling out into lane 2 at 37 mph is. Obviously mirrors were not checked. Had the car been travelling at 70 mph without blues and the timing was very slightly different, the end result would have been very similar.
I feel very sorry for PC Holloway. That is his career trashed. How on earth he can have been culpable when, based on the information in this report, Mr Shaw is to blame, is utterly beyond me. To be honest, I am continually surprised that officers still volunteer for fast driving, firearms, riot control etc. Why take the risk of something like this happening?
Far better find a nice chair to polish and solve crime by chasing people for being rude, silly or both in the internet. Meanwhile, illegal e scooters run amok, as do illegal cycles and that is long before we get onto grooming gangs.
How do you think that Cressida Dick rose to command the Met?
I think all serving officers should hand in their driving tickets and let the criminals do what they like until common sense prevails and these stupid magistrates are removed from power, how can the Police driver be found guilty when the other driver clearly pulled out in front of him without checking their mirrors ? I am hoping an appeal will clear the officer.