how can I find out details of fatal road traffic involving friend?

Warwick_Hunt

angrycrow wrote: »

Dealing with them as part of my job would be the source. They are never pleasant afairs to deal with.

Given that a senior prosecutor from CPS will attend the initial case conference I can tell you 12 months to come to trial is not the norm and they would not allow this to happen.

angrycrow

Warwick_Hunt wrote: »

Given that a senior prosecutor from CPS will attend the initial case conference I can tell you 12 months to come to trial is not the norm and they would not allow this to happen.

Maybe not in your constabulary but only one case I have been involved in has come to trial earlier than 11 months and I deal with cases from all over the country.

Manxman_in_exile

Warwick_Hunt wrote: »

And that could entail the police doing the bare minimum and the coroner simply reading the report. On the other hand if there is a crown court trial there won’t be an inquest.

How can there be a trial without an inquest? Are you sure????

IamNotAllowedToUseMyName

Manxman_in_exile wrote: »

How can there be a trial without an inquest? Are you sure????

Inquests and criminal trials are independent processes for different purposes.

For example, if a person was seriously injured rather than killed there would still be a trial.

Similarly, if someone died in a variety of circumstances not involving criminal activity then there will still be an inquest.

The link typically gets highlighted when an Inquest determines an unlawful killing which may then trigger a review of prosecution. The processes aren't independent because the coroner will not need an Inquiry if the criminal case is proven. It is not up to the coroner to prove an unlawful killing before there can be a case, rather the coroner will automatically return that verdict in the event of a successful prosecution.

AndyMc.....

Manxman_in_exile wrote: »

How can there be a trial without an inquest? Are you sure????

If someone is convicted of death by careless/dangerous the offender has committed a criminal offence and it has resulted in a death. It then does not need a coroner to rule they were unlawfully killed.

worried_jim

Was there nothing in the local paper OP? By the sounds of Pastures New description (and is often the case) the old boy was driving an automatic and got the pedals mixed up and floored the accelerator thinking it was the break when trying to park.

littlerock

It was not the case referred to by Pastures New. The police in this case did not release any information at the time or even later that day (not even to traffic news although the road was closed, for several hours, and it is a busy road) in fact nothing until the following afternoon. Then it was just the bare bones report probably standard format. "Woman in 40s waiting at bus stop at around 8pm, hit by audi quattro. In critical condition in hospital. Family aware (it actually said that.) Driver stopped at location. (That too must have been a standard line in the report proforma, if you had seen the resulting damage, there could not have been a lot of car left...) driver is having treatment for non life threatening injuries. No arrests made." That was it and it was not released until the following day. two days later a brief report was issued saying the woman had died.

I wondered if the public is allowed to know the circumstances of a serious road accident or if it is deliberately kept secret unless you are a relative. I am only interested because I knew her. It is puzzling, both the apparent news black out at the time, which other local people have commented on, and because the road concerned - the driver would have had to do a 90 degree turn at high speed to hit the bus stop and there is really no where to turn there, there are parked cars each side apart from the bus stop.

IamNotAllowedToUseMyName

littlerock wrote: »

I wondered if the public is allowed to know the circumstances of a serious road accident or if it is deliberately kept secret unless you are a relative. I am only interested because I knew her. It is puzzling, both the apparent news black out at the time, which other local people have commented on, and because the road concerned - the driver would have had to do a 90 degree turn at high speed to hit the bus stop and there is really no where to turn there, there are parked cars each side apart from the bus stop.

As soon as there is a criminal investigation then the police will not share anything that they believe may hinder their investigation. They may appeal for witnesses, but they will not release a description of the event and aside from vague details of arrest. They certainly will not suggest blame.

The press are very much party to this, they should not share anything but the most basic of information when they know there is a criminal investigation. I'm not sure what legal restrictions there are, but there is presumably is obstruction of justice.

As a concerned citizen - well, you have no rights to know what went on. You will have to be very patient, it could be a year or more before anything happens. Someone I knew was killed on a bicycle and the trial was 18 months, that is not unusual, and before that time there simply was not any public information.

Your role is tea and sympathy, not to be a PI.

Robisere

Sounds like a plot for "Silent Witness".

Warwick_Hunt

IanMSpencer wrote: »

As soon as there is a criminal investigation then the police will not share anything that they believe may hinder their investigation. They may appeal for witnesses, but they will not release a description of the event and aside from vague details of arrest. They certainly will not suggest blame.

The press are very much party to this, they should not share anything but the most basic of information when they know there is a criminal investigation. I'm not sure what legal restrictions there are, but there is presumably is obstruction of justice.

As a concerned citizen - well, you have no rights to know what went on. You will have to be very patient, it could be a year or more before anything happens. Someone I knew was killed on a bicycle and the trial was 18 months, that is not unusual, and before that time there simply was not any public information.

Your role is tea and sympathy, not to be a PI.

Given the description they don’t need to.