Coroner criticises police over dead motorist search

A police search operation left "a lot to be desired" after a trainee mechanic hung dead and upside down in his crashed car for more than three days, a coroner said today.

Despite two 999 calls to police from motorists who saw Martin Hope veer off the A1 near Newark in Nottinghamshire, officers from two forces failed to find his body, an inquest heard.

The 19-year-old from Grantham, Lincolnshire, was travelling home from work when he suffered a brain haemorrhage and lost control of his three-door hatchback, which then plunged into a ditch.

One officer spent seven or eight minutes searching the verge of the southbound carriageway, while driving at speeds of between 30mph and 60mph, Nottingham Coroner's Court heard today.

Recording a narrative verdict, Nottinghamshire coroner Nigel Chapman said: "The search and the investigation left a lot to be desired.

"The actual investigation and looking for Martin was not of the standard that one would have expected. One would have expected a better standard of looking, checking and reporting back.

"There should have been, somewhere along the line, someone who would have taken the initiative: to have called back either of the callers to find out a more specific area, or to have called the helicopter in, or to have got out of the car and done a little bit of a walk (to find the crashed car)."

He added: "I don't think, at the end of the day, that Martin would have survived.

"But there is a huge difference between him being in hospital where his family are with him and he has medical attention and hanging upside down in a car dying without anyone with him."

The inquest heard that shortly after 8am on Friday, August 17 last year, Nottinghamshire Police received a call from Kirby Duddigan, who said that she had seen a car leave the A1. In the accident, she said, a wheel flew off the car.

Police constable Mark Stacey spent seven or eight minutes looking for the accident after he was sent out from Newark police station, the inquest heard.

He said: "I drove down the A1 at between 30mph and 60mph, took one look and then left the incident. I rang control and told them about what I saw.

"I didn't stop because I didn't see anything physically or any evidence of the accident. I didn't see any marks on the road."

The inquest also heard that information about the wheel flying off Mr Hope's white Vauxhall Corsa was not passed on from the operator who took Ms Duddigan's call to the control room manager, Russell Tunstall. He said that he closed down the incident after officers failed to find the car.

Mr Tunstall said: "The car could have gone on the verge and driven off again. I didn't know if it had over-turned."

The inquest heard that Lincolnshire Police had received another call from Helen Rouse, who said she witnessed the incident.

The control room sent out Pc Daniel Gilmore to search for the car and he spent an hour driving up and down the A1. But he told the inquest he was unable to find the car.

The inquest heard that Mr Hope had been driving home from work in Newark after a night shift when he went to over-take a lorry. It is not known exactly what caused the crash but the inquest heard he had suffered a brain haemorrhage.

He lost control of his car, which spun around, hit the kerb and over-turned in to the ditch at the side of the road.

His body was found still strapped in to the upside down car by road workers the following Monday - three-and-a-half days after the crash was reported.

Dr Chapman said Mr Hope died of natural causes. He added: "There was an opportunity to find Martin. There was an opportunity by two police forces but there was very little or no communication between the two forces."

Detective Chief Inspector Mick Windmill-Jones of Nottinghamshire Police's professional standards unit said that a number of changes had been implemented immediately after the incident.

DCI Windmill-Jones said: "We know the information was there to help us but it was then reduced for the dispatcher.

We have now developed a new way in which questions will be asked and that information will then be passed on to the call dispatcher.

"I am confident that we have got things in place so this won't happen again."

The inquest heard that Mr Hope was either unconscious or dead by the time his car came to a halt in the ditch.

If he was alive, he would have died shortly after the crash, the inquest heard.

Outside the coroners' court after the inquest, Mr Hope's mother Joanne Lanes, 45, paid tribute to her son.

She said: "Martin was a very much loved 19-year-old, a lively member of the family, with a heart of gold whose adult life had just started.

"He had just started a new job, got a new flat and car - all the things in his adult life were just starting to flourish.

"Through this tragic, unforeseen set of circumstances his young life was brought to a sharp, sudden and devastating end.

"The date of his accident was the 17th August 2007, yet he was not found until 20th August 2007, the additional circumstances in delaying finding Martin has caused unbearable stress, grief and heartache to all members of the family.

"The distress that this has caused to the family is immeasurable and we will never get over the sudden loss of such a caring son.

"Although we may never know the exact date of his death, we hope the inquest has brought to light some of the missing facts, yet we still have no exact date for his gravestone. Unfortunately this is a fact that we will have to live with."

An investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission is still looking in to the incident. Mrs Lanes added that she and her family were speaking to their solicitors about further legal action.