Brandon James Pryde and David Ernest Faulkner · Prevention of Future Deaths report

On 28th May 2021 an investigation was commenced into the death of Brandon James Pryde, otherwise known as Brandon Geasley. The investigation concluded at the end of the Inquest on 8th July 2022. The conclusion of the Inquest was that he died from multiple injuries in a road traffic collision.

On 28th May 2021, an investigation was commenced into the death of David Ernest Faulkner. The investigation concluded at the end of the Inquest on 14th July 2022. The conclusion of the Inquest was that he died from multiple injuries in a road traffic collision in which his car was struck by a car which was being driven at speed on the wrong carriageway of a motorway.

The deaths of Brandon Pryde and Ernest Faulkner arose out of the same road traffic collision on 27th May 2021 on the M60 motorway between junctions 1 and 27 at Stockport.

A BMW X4 SUV that had been stolen earlier that day in Stockport was seen by a police officer at about 8.30pm in the Wythenshawe area and officers of the Greater Manchester Police Tactical Vehicle Intercept Unit ("TVIU") went to that area later that evening to try to locate and recover the vehicle. At about 9.50pm, the BMW was seen by a TVIU patrol, now bearing false number plates. Brandon Pryde was the driver of the BMW at that time.

The BMW drove away from the TVIU car at speed and a spontaneous pursuit began. The TVIU officer was trained in both initial and tactical pursuit and self-authorised the pursuit, which began on A roads towards the motorway network at speeds around 70 mph.
The pursuit was monitored by the GMP control room operators, who alerted the Force Duty Supervisor to the pursuit. That officer began to monitor the pursuit, which moved onto the M56 motorway just over a minute after it commenced.

Once on the motorway, the speed of the BMW increased to over 100 mph, reaching speeds of 130 mph. The TVIU car travelled at similar speeds in pursuit. The weather conditions were described as clear and dry and the motorway traffic was light, but the dashcam and CCTV footage showed that there were a number of other vehicles, including the Vauxhall Insignia driven by David Faulkner, travelling in the same direction as the pursuit, with the BMW and TVIU car predominantly in the outside lane as they travelled onto and along the M60 towards Stockport.

The GMP Force Duty Supervisor did not take any active role in the supervision of the pursuit, assuming that as the pursuit had joined the motorway network, that the equivalent officer of the North West Motorway Patrol Group (“NWMPG”) had taken over the supervision of the pursuit. Although the NWMPG control room was aware of and monitoring the pursuit during the time that it was on the motorway network, the Supervisor was undertaking their assessment of the situation and did not take control of the pursuit.

David Faulkner’s car was overtaken by the pursuit. Although other police patrols followed, none was in a position to be part of the active pursuit.

A trained GMP Tactical Advisor did give advice to deploy a stinger device and containment and if the BMW were to attempt to travel in the wrong direction (“go contra”), to consider tactical contact if safe to do so.

The BMW left the motorway at junction 27 and was lost from the sight of the following TVIU car. The pursuit had been in progress for approximately 4 minutes by this time. 20 seconds later, as a GMP dog van patrol arrived at the end of the slip road at junction 27, the BMW was driven past the police van, back up the slip road to re-join the M60, but now travelling in the opposite direction, against the flow of traffic. It drove in the outside lane at speed past a second TVIU car (which was travelling in the correct direction), before moving to the inside lane and into collision with the Vauxhall Insignia driven by Mr. Faulkner in the middle lane about 550 metres from the point at which the BMW had re-joined the M60 carriageway.

The three police vehicles had begun to follow in the same direction, but on the parallel, correct carriageway of the motorway.

The topography and relative speeds of the vehicles meant that neither Mr. Faulkner nor Mr. Pryde had any opportunity to avoid the collision which had an estimated closing speed of at least 150 mph and which resulted in an extremely forceful impact, causing destructive damage to both vehicles and fatal injuries to both drivers, who died at the scene.

I received evidence in both inquests that there is a Protocol between GMP and NWMPG (which is based at the Cheshire Constabulary) dated June 2015 in accordance with the College of Police Authorised Professional Practice for Police Pursuits, for the Command and Control of pursuits. That Protocol is intended to provide a mechanism for Command and Control to be undertaken and transferred between GMP and NWMPG when pursuits move between the normal road network and the motorway network, so that Command and Control is maintained throughout. The Supervising Officer in the control room has the authority to direct that a pursuit be discontinued if they assess that it is right to do so, having regard to all of the circumstances which are known to them, which may include information not immediately available to the police officer(s) involved in the pursuit.

Although I found that the absence of any control-room Command and Control had not contributed to either death in this case, the following matters gave rise to concern, having regard to the inherent risk of pursuits, which are likely to move between ordinary road and motorway networks in the Greater Manchester area;

(1) The GMP Force Duty Supervisor assumed that the NWMPG Supervisor had taken Command and Control when they had not done so;
(2) The NWMPG Supervisor did not communicate whether they had taken Command and Control clearly;
(3) The GMP Force Duty Supervisor did not consider that they had any authority to perform Command and Control of the pursuit once it had entered the motorway network; and
(4) The Protocol did not operate in practice so that there was no effective Command and Control at any point during the pursuit.