When will the parents of the children killed in the Wimbledon crash get an answer?

[GotMooMilk]

Sorry for the daily fail link. This story really resonated with me at the time as I used to work at St Georges and lived close to Wimbledon. It's been ages and those poor parents still have no answers.

What do you think happened? Before people say it's horrible to speculate and none of my business- I know but my kids are similar age and I feel heartbroken for them and you'd be desperate for some kind of closure.

Heartbreaking footage shows Wimbledon crash victim Selena Lau, eight, playing the piano at an end-of-term tea party before Land Rover smashed into grounds of school killing her and another classmate | Daily Mail Online

It's awful for the parents and families of the two girls and all I've read so far is that a 46 year old woman was arrested and has been released pending ongoing enquiries.

It's either driver error which may be due to a genuine illness or loss of control due to another factor or mechanical failure in which case a long investigation has to prove precisely that an element of the cars workings was 100 % at fault.

It is somewhat unusual for a seemingly straightforward case to take so long to charge (although getting to court is another issue entirely).

The threshold for charging is both evidentiary (is there enough to secure a conviction- is it admissible/credible/reliable/are there other factors that may affect the evidence) and then only if this is met, whether prosecution is in public interest. Part of the PI assessment involves assessing level of culpability.

my bet would be a medical incident occurred that affects both parts of the threshold test, hence no charge. It takes time to get relevant medical reports.

interestingly the woman is not currently in bail, having not been re-bailed on the last occasion to do so.

I've lost relatives in a road accident and absolutely understand the initial desire that something must be done. For a long time I wanted the driver responsible jailed. Years later I'm glad he wasn't. Taking him away from his family wouldn't have brought mine back.

Of course the families want answers though. My understanding in this case is that passers by thought the driver was drunk but that it subsequently turned out to be an [as yet undisclosed] medical issue.

It's human to want to blame someone, so they want to know if she was at fault in any way, perhaps by not taking medication correctly or ignoring symptoms. It won't bring their children back, but in the short term it can be easier to accept that someone did something wrong than to understand that nothing could have been done to prevent the deaths of children.

Jesus OP you've got some harsh responses, this place is mad sometimes. It's not just looking for gory details - the parents themselves have gone to the press in an effort to get some answers. I read their interview in the Times and it was so sad. I do hope they find out what happened and why soon.

As for this, WTF?

Ifailed · Yesterday 21:06
That's what happens when you read the hard right press.

I was just about to post something very similar.

This modern trend of using the word closure is nothing more than an insult to the bereaved.

There is no such thing as closure. What does it even mean? Can everyone go home and forget about it because your child/husband/wife has been buried, or a jury found someone guilty of their murder. Do any of these things take the pain away? No, they bloody don't.

There is some value in seeing justice done but there is absolutely no such thing as closure after losing someone you loved.

Joanna Yates father (the girl murdered in Bristol in 2010) lost his shit during an interview when it was suggested that a guilty verdict had finally brought closure to his family.

Land Rover Defender: A reboot that lives up to the hype – The Irish Times

This Irish Times write-up of the Land Rover Defender merrily exclaims that:

"Speaking to The Irish Times at the launch, Nick Collins, the Defender's vehicle line director explained that "an example of one of our toughest sign-off tests was to get the Defender to overcome hitting a 200mm high square-edged kerb at 40km/h. Now if you happen to be unlucky enough to be the test driver of that car, that's quite an extreme input. That specific test will generate 7 tonnes of load through the suspension, through the links and into the body structure." And the new Defender can cope. This is heavy duty off-roading."

As this Twitter commenter pointed out "Not great news for any pedestrian standing on the other side of that kerb." Apparently, neither the Irish Times not the vehicle line director appear to have given the slightest thought to the danger this poses to anyone on the pavement.

(2) Ciarán Cuffe on X: "Yikes. The new Land Rover Defender can “overcome hitting a 200mm high square-edged kerb at 40km/h”. Not great news for any pedestrian standing on the other side of that kerb. t.co/cZuZWbwBmL" / X (twitter.com)

Frankly? This makes me so angry that I really don't care if the woman concerned had a medical issue behind the wheel. She chose to drive a stupid and dangerous vehicle in a built up urban area.

Totally agree with you @user1477391263

It's not normal for someone not to be charged though

I can appreciate the need for privacy until being charged

After all this time of gathering evidence I'm guessing she won't be charged as she was sick or something

You know, if I were called up for jury service and ended up on this case, I'd already know that apparently, she's a rich woman married to a very easily identifiable and influential public figure, that they've allegedly been seeking to evade justice, etc, etc.

You know what that makes the verdict if she were then found guilty, don't you? And what would happen if it were disclosed to the court that people were having their opinions predetermined by the gossiping on mumsnet? One overturned verdict or a complete collapse during a session, jury discharged, new Court date to be set maybe another year away.

What? Wheres all this information come from that shes married to a public figure?

That review of the Land rover is ridiculous - why are drivers allowed to drive something like that round an urban area with a normal license?

You can't drive a tractor or an HGV without a specialist license and both of those vehicles are arguably less dangerous in an urban area due to less speed and manoeuvrability.

Anyone else think it's time for a crackdown on these mega SUV type vehicles?

The post was deleted.

Absolutely agree ridiculous car to have in cities totally unnecessary

there is absolutely no reason to have these huge cars in a city (unless driving in). It’s a fashion accessory they create more traffic, leads to more pollution and yes agree so many driver struggle with such big cars they should take a further test

also should be much higher taxed as Sadiq Khan originally said he would

Totally agree with this re SUVs, there are heaps where we live and it's so unnecessary.

I don't think its goulish to want to know what happened, it was a shocking thing. Any parent will want to know how we can understand this case and stop it happening again.

I thought a lot about the poor boy that was thrown off Tate Modern in the same way. It's human nature to want to understand why.

Absolutely. The bloody things are many times more dangerous than a regular car and are absolutely unnecessary in 99% of the places they’re driven in, including the scene of this accident.

That the stupid bastard at Land Rover was boasting about its ability to mount a kerb beggars belief, especially in the light of this incident.

SUV use needs to become socially unacceptable in urban areas. It would do a lot to clean up the air, as well as improve safety.

I think a lot of cities have been looking at each other, seeing who will move first and also who will carve out a model that works. Let’s hope that Paris’s idea catches on?

I’d also like to see vehicles over a certain weight banned from using anything other than the ground level of multistory car parks because engineers are getting worried about this aspect too. As the UK’s multistory car parks continue to age and grow increasingly decrepit while more and more people keep buying bigger and bigger cars, there are now genuine concerns about some of the car parks pancaking under the weight of these increasingly massive vehicles, especially as they start to acquire massive batteries to match. Not to mention the risk that if a driver steps on the wrong thing and accelerates, there is a real risk that they could actually blast through the outer wall of a multistory car park several floors up and out into mid air (!). New thing to worry about…

You can drive a tractor on a normal license (category F), no special license needed - it's automatically issued when you get your driving license.

Unfortunately in the UK local governments have virtually no powers (I think only North Korea beats us in terms of centralisation of government) and certainly wouldn't have the power to do what Paris is doing unless they were 'allowed' to by Westminster.

I often joke that the mayor and council of my family's commune in France (pop. 320) has more powers and responsibility than our county council here in England (pop. 1.2M).

Driver had an epileptic seizure at the wheel, her first ever. No further action.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13572179/driver-fatal-wimbledon-school-crash-epileptic-seizure.html

It's taken a year to say that? Those poor poor families!

Yes I don't understand why it has taken so long. Usually the families would be told I think even if a formal court process took longer and yet, I think I saw an interview not many weeks ago saying they didn't know anything.

the driver hadn't had a seizure before and didn't have epilepsy so I imagine has been having tests. Its not something thats easy to diagnose off one seizure. Devastating for the families to not get "justice" but I agree there should be no blame with the driver at all, although I am sure she will blame herself every day the poor lady.

God bless everyone involved. There are no winners in this story.

What an awful tragic accident.