Antony Michael Rogivska · Prevention of Future Deaths report

On 20th December 2016 I commenced an investigation into the death of Antony Rogivska, aged 28. The investigation concluded at the end of the inquest on 27th June 2019. Mr Rogivska’s certified cause of death was:

1a) Chest injuries
1b) Road Traffic Collision (driver)

The jury made the following factual determinations: “Mr Rogivska died at the scene of a road traffic collision on 14th December 2016 at the junction between Carr House Road and Cooper Lane, Shelf, Halifax. Factors which contributed to the collision were that Mr Rogivska was an inexperienced driver under the influence of cannabis and he entered the corner too fast to safely negotiate it. Mr Rogivska was also not wearing a seat belt which may have reduced the severity of his injuries”. The jury’s conclusion was that this was a death due to a road traffic accident.

The circumstances of the death are as set out in the jury’s findings of fact as above, save in addition that at the point at which he crashed, Mr Rogivska was being pursued by police, having failed to stop for police having been indicated to do so. By their findings as set out, the jury did not find that the fact of the police pursuit caused or contributed to Mr Rogivska’s death. In further addition, Mr Rogivska collided, not with another vehicle, but into a domestic property abutting the opposite carriageway of Carr House Road from where he had entered Carr House Road from Cooper Lane. Reconstruction evidence was given to the effect that Mr Rogivska entered the junction at 45 mph, when the maximum speed its intended left turn could have been negotiated while remaining in his appropriate carriageway was 20mph.

(1) There is a history of road traffic collisions involving both vehicles and property at the junctions of Cooper Lane and Carr House Road and at the mini-roundabout at the crossroads formed by Cooper Lane and Carr House Lane.
(2) Concerns about the safety of the above junction and roundabout have been expressed by local residents and campaigners.