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?

And in that sense it could happen to any of us. A friend's dad died of a heart attack while driving. Fortunately his wife was able to steer to safety. So it's not just epilepsy that can do this.

Which is why we need measures to ensure that cars are kept away from vulnerable road users. So that the only victim in the event of an accident is some concrete.

So that's.... All people then.... 👌🏻

The two "sides" here are the potential defendant and the prosecution. Both sides have reviewed the evidence.

We're all vulnerable road users. How are you saying this would work? Do we have concrete barriers alongside each lane of every road, and ordain that there has to be 200 metres space between every car or something?

No, you restrict the movement of cars around schools and residential areas (blocking through traffic or closing the streets to cars entirely, school streets are becoming popular). Where cars still use streets you use planters as chicanes to ensure that they never have the opportunity to get up to any speed. You provide safe active travel infrastructure so that people can get about without even needing a car.

Of course not. Sensible measures could include:

Increasing the number of pedestrianized spaces within cities when possible

Taking measures to make it harder to own huge cars, and making it much harder to bring them into cities (provide better public transport in cities and offer park-n-ride facilities at outlying stations for rural drivers to use)

Adding bollards to particularly sensitive or vulnerable areas

Adding speed limiters to cars, which would reduce velocity and therefore carnage in the event of a medical event

The UK is remarkably lax when it comes to taxing and charging for huge vehicles - it’s literally been described as a tax haven for large polluting cars.

And it’s not even as if the UK is like America (which cheerfully bulldozed its old cities and old buildings in the 20th century to make room for gigantic roads and car parks).

The UK is obsessed with green belt, limiting city size, preserving old buildings and charming terraced streets and building nothing… and yet also refuses to do anything about ever-growing numbers of ever-huger cars being jammed into every bit of the road network and used for ever-more journeys. Hence, gridlock, parking wars and potholed roads. You can’t go on like this.

Yeah, I think the problem is the arrogance more than the ignorance. There's nothing wrong with having no relevant experience of any of the areas being discussed. It's the ones who know they don't but still don't let that stop them.

What should she be charged with then? Causing death by dangerous driving? Except she didn't drive dangerously. She had a medical episode and had a fit at the wheel. There's a world of difference.

How on earth do you determine who is a vulnerable road user BEFORE they've had their first medical episode at the wheel? Shall we just ban everyone from driving? Absolutely nonsensical.

We can't legislate away all risk, with driving or any other part of life - not least because once we park our cars we need to get out of them and walk to wherever we're going!

I was knocked down years ago when two cars collided and one (the one which wasn't at fault) mounted the pavement. It was a small car and just sort of clipped me so I was sore for a few days but otherwise fine. Another few inches and I would've been pinned between car and wall and it would have been a very different story.

A larger car would have been riskier to me on the pavement - but actually a larger car probably wouldn't have been knocked off course like that and so it wouldn't have come anywhere near me.

There's always ifs and buts. Sometimes horrific things just happen, it's not possible to come up with rules that will save us all from cruel chance.

My husband had one aged 50 out of nowhere in bed in the middle of the night. Hospital weren't concerned, you can have 1 seizure in your lifetime apparently. He then had a 2nd seizure 12hrs after the first one so is now classed as epileptic even though he hasn't had anymore in over 2years.

Even if they reviewed it, what difference would that have made, the outcome would have been the same, (ie no prosecution) unless they felt the evidence wasn’t strong or conclusive enough.

I’m surprised the lady has been named, with photographs, as well.

I agree, the outcome would've been the same.

As for picturing her, that's what happens these days with social media and the cancel culture. I was surprised it wasn't sooner.

Thank you

That's misinformation. He's not a KC, nor is he a lawyer. He works for a bank. He has no influence on the legal process.

After a seizure, some people will still have abnormal electrical activity in the brain for hours. Many won't. So you can't prove someone hasn't had a seizure that way. But you can find evidence to support the claim that they have had one, if you're lucky.

Tests will show whether you are susceptible to some forms of epilepsy - not just photosensitive. Epilepsy triggered by lights is rare but it is easy to diagnose.

A head injury, irregularities on a brain scan, a brain tumour could cause epilepsy, there would be supporting evidence if one of these causes was present.

If this was a first seizure and there is a diagnosis of epilepsy, this woman has had at least one seizure since.

While it's prohibitively expensive for public cases where epilepsy can be assumed and medication tested, people can be admitted to hospital, hooked up to EEGs and observed on camera.

A wealthy person may have been able to pay for this treatment, and I'm sure they would after an accident like this. But they would not be able to pay for a diagnosis without some of the positive signs above.

Eye-witness reports, dashcam footage, CCTV and the driver's state and behaviour afterwards could all be additional evidence. For example, not all epileptic seizures cause you to bite your tongue in a specific way, but it's rare to do so outside epileptic seizures.

tldr: there are several ways to show that someone has had a seizure, but they won't work for all seizures. Catching someone in the act of having a second seizure, or provoking one with medical tests, would help to give a diagnosis of epilepsy, and certain abnormalities or injuries to the brain can make epilepsy more likely.

Just to be brutal but the driver is white & the children involved are not. The driver is also wealthy & well-connected.
Taking this into consideration, the victims's families are going to have the HUGE doubt that there has been some kind of coverup. I believe 'institutional racism' is the correct phrase.
The police investigation is now complete & everything is to be passed onto the coroner for the inquest.
(Info courtesy of The Daily Fail & Daily Telegraph).

I had a syncope out of nowhere back in 2017. Fell down the stairs but luckily only needed stitches & nothing else. I've never had one since.
I was already on a 3-yr medical licence due to psychiatric issues so again I surrendered my licence once & after a syncope-clear year, I reapplied. On receiving my licence back I had two years of 1 year licence & now I am back to a 3-yr licence.
The DVLA now requires notes from both my psychiatrist & cardiologist when I apply for my licence as they should.

Conversely, you could deduce that, because of the black/white situation, and to prevent any potential ‘institutional racism’ accusations, a more robust and thorough investigation was made. It may have been easier, therefore, to have a court trial, but the powers to be decided/concluded there was no case to have.

The school was a private school. Fees are around five and a half thousand per term, so all involved could be considered wealthy.

I think @DdraigGoch means pedestrians, when she says “vulnerable road users”, not ‘drivers who might have an unpredicted medical episode at the wheel’. That’s my understanding of what she said, anyway.

The parents of the children involved are also wealthy.

Where did you read this?

A bit puzzled here about how to cross the road when I go out and ensure all cars are kept away from me, that's for sure.

All families involved are wealthy and by that token, influential to a degree.

He works in finance.