Andrew MacIntyre Brown · Prevention of Future Deaths report

An investigation was commenced into the death of Andrew MacIntyre Brown, aged 23. The investigation concluded on 18 November 2022. The conclusion of the jury in the inquest was:

Road Traffic Collision:
The [Police] driver made a reasonable decision to follow a suspect vehicle, then carried out an inadequate risk assessment, in doing so he drove at an unsuitable speed and inappropriately decided not to use lights and sirens.
At 0.6 seconds prior to the collision, the driver applied the brakes at the speed of 61mph which was 16.1 metres from the pedestrian crossing. The police car then collided with two pedestrians on the pedestrian crossing; this led to the death of Andrew MacIntyre Brown on the 5th November 2019.
Considering the evidence, there were inadequacies in the policies and training in regards to the use of blue lights and sirens at night.

The medical cause of death was

1a Head injury

Before undertaking response driver trainer, the Police driver needed to have read material which included Police policies relating to response driving. These policies were also available on the Police intranet. The Police driver passed the written examination (which included questions on Police policies) to commence Police response driver training course and passed the course in September 2018. On 1st November 2019, the Police driver struck the deceased at a pedestrian crossing whilst driving at night over the speed limit and whilst not using blue lights and sirens, severely injuring the deceased. The Police driver was subsequently convicted of causing death by careless or inconsiderate driving and was dismissed by the Police for gross misconduct. The inquest was heard before a jury and the jury was asked whether the Police policies in 2019 regarding the use by response-trained drivers of speed exemptions, activation of blue lights or sirens, and/or night-time emergency response driving was inadequate. The jury’s findings were that the Police policy was inadequate in that there was insufficient reference to other road users and pedestrians and their safety in the policy and the policy was also too open to interpretation, both which possibly contributed to the death.

1. There is insufficient reference to other road users and pedestrians and their safety in the Metropolitan Police Service Police Driver & Vehicle Policy - Vehicle and Equipment Standard Operating Procedure (SOP).

2. The Metropolitan Police Service Police Driver & Vehicle Policy - Vehicle and Equipment Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) is too open to interpretation in the section on “silent approach” in section 1.55 Warning equipment – (sirens, blue lights and headlamp flasher) and the first three paragraphs of section 1.57 Blue Lights. The scope or threshold of the exception in the two sections is not clear and it is also not clear where the exception in the latter section applied to response drivers.