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?

Jesus Christ. I’m scared that some of the witch-hunting ignoramuses on here will sit on juries one day. 😬

DH had a seizure just over a year ago. Never had one before or since and he is late 70's. Went to hospital and had exhaustive tests but no reason found and not diagnosed with epilepsy. Surrendered driving licence of course and now applying to get it back. Seizure happened at home so no danger to anyone else. Not sure how safe I will feel with him driving again when he is allowed to but that is how the rules work.

It shows why tabloids are written for people with a literacy/reading age of an average seven-year-old. "Witch kills two SWEET BABIES and gets off SCOT FREE. #BrokenBritain"

@Safewater my DS was medicated after his first 'whopper' (inappropriate word I know), alhtough he'd had febrile convulsions as a small child which had left scarring in his brain. He was given the option to medicate (since the neurologist was fairly sure where the problem lay and what might help) or 'wait and see'. DS wasnt going to do that. He had a gap year in central America waiting for him, and a place at Cambridge after that. But you're right about meds - not straightforward; DS is fairly sure they affect his memory. But against that there was no way he was risking going away and having another tonic clonic in a developing country.
It's a real balance isnt it? And it seems some very old and negative attitudes to epilepsy persist. As this thread shows.
I hope your child has been able to get on with life despite the difficulties with meds you mentioned x

After sitting on a jury (twice!) I'd hope never to be tried by one. It did surprisingly pan out, but the selection of characters was unsettling.

Well they can vote, that scares me shitless.

Terrifying. Apparently we should subvert the judicial system and use trial by public opinion instead - perhaps a referendum on Saturday nights? have a ticker tape running along the bottom of the screen while Strictly's on, or something.

She had never had a seizure. She had never had a diagnosis or any reason to think she was epileptic

MrsDanversGlidesAgain · Today 14:09
Staringatthewalljustmeagain · Today 14:05
Jesus Christ. I’m scared that some of the witch-hunting ignoramuses on here will sit on juries one day. 😬

Well they can vote, that scares me shitless

I’m pleased that they can. Most will vote Reform and split the Tory vote nicely, ensuring a Labour government.

Because extensive medical checks and tests had to be done to a)verified what happened and b) check for any indication that there had been prior issues.
Seizures leave markers that prove they happened.

Then once tests were completed the legal process had to true place. A year isn't actually that long

Seizures leave markers in the brain that can be detected.

Not necessarily

edited, though I agree they can and may well have done for this person.

Totally agree, Safewater, and I've only done it once. In fairness most were just ordinary decent people, but a couple were the exception which proved your point and the concept of a jury full of them doesn't bear thinking about

Personally I preferred the days when the police ran their own prosecutions, though I recognise that things have got so technical now that it's probably no longer possible and the CPS may be the best of a number of options.
I just wish we could be confident they're doing the job properly, but really that's one for a different thread

As the medical experts are confident that she had an epileptic fit, it probably did leave markers in this case.

Thank you. Your DS sounds like he is living his best life regardless :)
My DS was a slightly younger teen - also had febrile convulsions when a baby. The meds have very much affected him, especially tiredness, memory and processing. School has been a trial. But other people's attitudes have been an eye opener.
Things are looking up for him now though.

Yes the parents have said they are not saying the conclusion is wrong. They are saying they want their team to have had the opportunity to have access to the investigation details do they would know for sure that all the information is correct.

I understand this. I would want to know there was NO tweaking of data or supposition or anything. Even if they are wild with crazy suspicion, that's understandable. THEIR DAUGHTERS ARE DEAD.
They would want to check everything so could put the matter more to rest.

Frankly if I was the woman i would WANT the families to have access to ANYTHING that might help them grieve and process and come to some closure. There would be nothing I wouldn't do to help even if it wasn't my 'fault'. A reasonable person would still feel absolutely horrified at the end result surely.

When a case is discussed by the general public there is almost always a sub section of people that turn it into a witch hunt rather than believing in following established legal procedures.

It is pretty much inevitable as the a large proportion of people don't understand the law and believe outcomes should be based on their personal prejudices as opposed to actual evidence.

Generally I find people who have performed jury service are a bit more clued up about the process after having been through it and having it carefully explained to them what the law requires in terms of proof.

If anything doing jury service actually raises your awareness of the system and how it works.

I can't wait to see how that turns out for you.

@IncompleteSenten

And tbh unless the parents are doctors they wouldn't be able to assess the notes or interpret test results anyway. They'd purely be looking to see if the word seizure appeared anywhere before the accident.
They'd be looking at more than this.
That they had checked for everything else. Alcohol. Drugs. Lack of sleep. Mobile phone use.
They would want to see records confirming the woman had never had anything even remotely associated with epilepsy diagnosed.
They would want to know if anything avoidable had caused the seizure or if it was just random.

Much more than the word seizure appearing

If that's what the parents want, they need to take out a private prosecution against her. But I doubt they will, because the outcome would be the same. There is no criminal case to answer.

It’s difficult to detect seizures. You can have EEG equipment on your head for days and it may pick up something that looks abnormal. But then I was told that 10% of people can have an abnormal EEG. If you are trying to find the source it can mean having holes into your head and electrodes put inside to measure activity and making you sleep deprived and off meds to try and trigger a seizure. Also with women it is sometimes related to their menstrual cycle which is a good time to test. It can take months for EEG results to come back and experts to go through scan MRI results, then link the two up.

There can sometimes be biological markers. For example some people have had seizures that have been related back to a Covid infection.

Researchers at the University of Oxford have shown that there is an increased risk of developing seizures in the six months following an infection of Covid-19.
This relates to the general population rather than to those who have epilepsy.
Although the risk is very low, evidence showed that people who had Covid-19 were 55 per cent more likely to develop epilepsy or seizures than those who had influenza.

Theres all sorts of environmental things that can trigger a first epileptic seizure. No one is immune to that.

epilepsysociety.org.uk/news/risk-epilepsy-following-Covid-19

@dunkdemunder Your not looking at the bigger pictures. This women has suffered a seizure (probably more as it now says epilepsy and you need to have more than 1 seizure to be diagnosed)
You have no idea how that affects individuals and families....this is without having a horrific ACCIDENT and this is what this is....and ACCIDENT.
No way should she give parents access to her medical records.
It has been investigated legally and by medical professionals they need to take their word...they have no right to access medical records.
Epilepsy can appear at anytime. My husband included at the age of 33 out of the blue.
The parents will never get over loosing their child. But it's not a criminal case it's a horrific accident

But even if they looked for "more than the word seizure", the parents couldn't possibly make the right call.

What if for example she HAD signs that point towards epilepsy? As long as honestly it wasn't picked up on and she was allowed to drive, she did nothing wrong. We accept a certain risk level to ANYONE driving.

It might make the parents feel better (MAYBE) but it wouldn't lead to more justice. And the precedence of parents get to judge the evidence on the basis of their feelings is a really bad one.

It's logical they, the parents, want that. And it's logical that we, the general public, know that it's a bad idea.

There is no justice to be had in this particular tragedy.

The parents are understandably devastated and angry, and they may never come to terms with what's happened. Either way, pursuing their justice (whatever that means to them) will not bring their daughters back. Truly awful all round.

Unfortunately having money doesn't stop bad things happening to you, and it money can't solve all your problems.

The families wants revenge, not justice.

@Safewater if we had our time again we would have gotten DS to press for exam concession at Cambridge. He def has a less sharp memory than he did. He was almost photographic. That has gone now.
Interesting that both our boys had febrile convulsions as small children. scarring on the brain causes electrical short circuits I suppose.