The driver in the Wimbledon school accident won't be charged?

[RiverF]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cw4448xx4keo

It sounds like a unavoidable and unforeseeable medical incident led to the tragedy, but the families wanted justice.

I can't begin to imagine their pain, but this is the right decision?

The difference is that these are essential vehicles, and in the case of buses any risk is balanced by the fact that they take a lot of passengers and therefore reduce the number of vehicles that are on the road.

Generalized “car bloat” is knackering roads, pavements, and multistory car parks. It’s about to get even worse with EVs making vehicles still heavier. We need to move to EVs but we need to be counterbalancing the battery weight by shifting towards smaller lighter vehicles and less driving. Instead, the exact opposite is happening.

Surely it's right that the vehicle was checked, even if the suspicion was medical reasons?

Yes, I imagine the initial police investigation would've concluded fairly promptly but then there can be months of further evidence gathering which would have to be reviewed by the CPS, who may then ask for additional info. There's a lot of back and forth between the two to make sure all lines of inquiry have been covered.

You're probably right, OP, though given what sounds like a discrepancy I can sort of see why the grieving families would pick up on things like this

You're also correct about cases queueing up for the CPS's attention, but then there's the point that the diagnoses, etc, would have added to the delay too.
I was badly injured myself when some fool ran me over and admitted even at the scene that it was completely their fault. Nevertheless the assessments and medicals for the insurers/legal case went on and on and ON

Sadly, there is always a first time for any medical problem, I'm sure that her medical history will have been closely examined. It's very sad for the bereaved families but it's a chance we take every second of our lives.

Why on earth would that be odd? The vast majority of people who have tonic-clonic seizures don't remember the seizure or anything for some time (say half an hour, sometimes more, sometimes less) afterwards.

Exactly. Checking the vehicle for faults alongside the driver's medical state would be a given.

I think that’s almost certainly it. This is a private school in a posh part of London. The parents themselves may well own a huge vehicle, or if not they will certainly have friends, family members and fellow school parents who do. So, in the anger and grief of a child’s death (which is inevitable - I cannot imagine what these poor peoples are going through), other things will be blamed, like suggestions that there was a miscarriage of justice in some way.

After my experience of being on a jury last year, nor would I, for many of our 12 the verdict was Guilty from the minute we were told the charges!

Even you know people involved, it's very unlikely that the CPS would have shared with them all the leads they were following and things they were finding out.

But many people have explained that it is completely normal to have no recollection of the time span of an epileptic seizure. My daughter loses 15 minutes of her life every time she has a tonic clonic.
I also very much doubt that this whole thing has been taken simply on the say so of one woman and one seizure.
The point is that none of us know anything here. All this poisonous speculation is so damaging and hurtful to all concerned.

Again just saying what I’ve been told but it seems that the police suggested the investigations they were doing were far more in depth that the standard checks (whatever they would be) that would happen after a crash. Of course some would always take place but the police specifically said the delays were due to far more extensive tests - which obviously led people to believe there was something suspicious to investigate

as I say you can understand why given that, people would have questions. Extensive medical tests were never mentioned as cause for delays

I've been unwell for a few months, had a scan 3 months ago, told on the day by person doing the scan that things basically looked like nothing serious to worry about. After a month I phoned the hospital and asked when I would get the report and told it would be at least 12 weeks. It did come about 12 weeks after the scan, GP got a copy and the report included a request for other tests. Two weeks after I got the report I phoned the surgery and asked about the blood tests and was told the GP had checked the report yet. Phoned later with an appointment for a blood test two weeks later and I suppose then I will wait for results.

I can well believe if there were various doctors involved, on the defence and police side, plus collating the information and interviewing witnesses, all being checked and then sent to CPS where it would be in another queue it seems perfectly reasonable that this could take a year.

Because the CPS have a humungous backlog, and investigations take time. They’d have been facing questions if they’d rushed it.
Someone I know of locally has been waiting 3 years to find out of the CPS are going to charge them with a crime.

They are different things though. Stabbing people is actually doing something intentionally to harm them. Even if you are mentally unwell you have still taken a weapon and inflicted harm.

This woman having a seizure wasn't the same. There was no intention to harm.

Of course it is. The vehicle would have undergone extensive checks alongside the medical investigations. All these things take time.

My understanding is that people with epilepsy can drive, as long as they haven't had a seizure in the past 12 months, @StormingNorman. If it is a first seizure, they must immediately notify the authorities, and will not be able to drive for a minimum of 6 months.

But that is not what the families have been told. I’m not starting some conspiracy theory here, I’m just saying that the families have valid questions about the information told to them by the police. It may be that the police didn’t commmunicate very well. But at the very least they deserve to know why. Which is why the police are going to speak to the whole school, surely.

I'm wondering if the parents suspect it was an alcohol withdrawal seizure rather than epilepsy. My friend had one of these in front of me and it was terrifying - foaming at the mouth, eyes rolled back, banging her head over and over on the floor. I'm sure the CPS have investigated that and ruled it out but just may be part of the parents' suspicion.

Regardless I feel so sorry for all involved 😞

Then they should be pushing for a judicial review of the police's evidence.

But as PP have said, families are not always informed of all lines of inquiry that the police are looking at. Some information will be sensitive, like medical records.

But the fact that there was a delay due to testing of the vehicle was probably completely true, it’s just that alongside the testing of the vehicle, medical investigations have led them to conclude that it was an unavoidable accident. All relevant investigations have to have taken place before they can make a decision as to whether there are any charges.

A £3m house is small potatoes in Wimbledon. She could afford decent lawyers that is true. However, it definitely doesn't put you in the bracket where you would have the connections to suppress evidence and influence medical professionals, the courts, police and CPS etc which several people here are implying she has done.

It does feel a bit like Twelve Angry Men tbh. When I was on jury service recently, there was more than person who openly declared that ‘they’re guilty til proven innocent as far as I’m concerned’ and another who genuinely believed that if there were witnesses to the crime then we shouldn’t have to bother with a trial as they must therefore be guilty.
Genuinely shocking.

Right on cue out come all the armchair neurologists and whizz kid lawyers giving their theories.Unless any of you have seen the brain scans, examined the vehicle, are party to the police interviews kindly keep your conspiracy theories to yourselves

Also there seems to be a fairly unsavoury suggestion on a lot of these threads that because she’s wealthy she is untrustworthy/a bad person.