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?

Online. It's not hard to find.

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

How do you see that working when you need to drive in a 20mph area and on a motorway?

It's a Wimbledon private school. Everyone involved is wealthy. We have wealthy, influential brown people in London y'know. Like say our mayor and Prime Minister.

Intelligent Speed Assistance is already mandatory in all new cars sold in Europe (yes, including the UK). It uses a camera and GPS to identify the speed limit and will close the throttle if the car is above it. It can be overridden by pushing hard down (so no worries about the car getting confused and thinking that you're on a side road rather than a motorway) but it should prevent someone accidentally accelerating over the speed limit because the throttle will push back. If you go further over the limit alarms will sound.
https://etsc.eu/intelligent-speed-assistance-isa/
www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/features/intelligent-speed-assistance-everything-you-need-know

Agree. Really not right to call the race card in this case. If anything the components which made this the high profile story it is are that the families are well off. I'm not saying it's right, but a story which shows that awful things happen even to people buffered by money is a bigger story than one which happens to poorer people.

I don't doubt for a second that the poor families will struggle to deal with this, and will latch onto any reason that might explain it other than the reality that it was an awful accident. It could be ethnicity. If they weren't all the same socio-economic status it might be that. Humans want there to be rational explanations.

And it's understandable that the families think that. They have an excuse, which is more than can be said for a lot of people.

Reading the Daily Mail comments, it’s easy to see why rumours spread. Some people were saying that the neurologist found no evidence of a seizure, which seemed confusing. Then it transpired that the person who said that thought that “no prior seizure” meant she hadn’t had a seizure seconds before the accident. But, it doesn’t mean that. It means she hadn’t had a seizure before the one she had that day.

It’s frightening how people can misunderstand information, get the wrong end of the stick, and then put forward that misunderstanding as fact. What’s even more frightening is that, despite the explanation of what the “prior” statement meant, people were still saying “There’s no evidence she had a seizure. It says it right there in the article” FFS! Not only can they not read properly, they also can’t read and comprehend someone correcting their mistake.

The driver’s photo should never have been published. She’s not guilty of anything, and publishing her photo is adding to the witch-hunt.

This is honestly a really common scenario. The only unusual thing is the clustering of factors which has made it tabloid-nip; the fact that it took place at a London private school, the involvement of a Land Rover, and of course the deaths of two young children. So the media can tug the heartstrings and at the same time play to people's resentment of the wealthy.

I must say she really has a beautiful house. Nice spread from a couple months ago on These Three Rooms.

Going to court shows it's serious. Going to court keeps the issue in the public eye for longer so that people can take the deaths of these children seriously, and continue to consider the dangers that these urban tanks driving around schools pose to the lives of our little ones. It's not a lust for blood. I don't give a toss about the woman's sentence as long as she never drives again. I'm just sick of children being killed by drivers and the public keep writing it off as an accident and never talk about it again. or work to try and prevent these deaths.

The CPS haven't proven she's innocent, they have just realised they're unlikely to be able prove a crime has been committed so they're not going to bother. They're not quite the same.

Do you understand what the cps purpose is?

Going to court.... Means it's a potential crime.

Literally nobody is 'not taking it seriously'

There. Is. No. Crime. She. Had. An. Unpredictable. First. Time. Medical. Incident.

You can’t go to court if the CPS don’t believe a crime has committed. The CPS are, as the name suggests, the prosecution. How can they prosecute a crime that they don’t believe exists? You can’t just ‘go to court’ when there is no evidence to suggest a crime has been committed.
It is not the CPS’s job to prove anyone’s innocence. That is the job of the defence. The CPS are not the defence. The CPS’s job is to determine if there has been a crime, and if there is enough evidence to prosecute the crime. Only then can a case go to court.
Therefore what you are suggesting is to override the entire legal system, for this one case.

You may not have noticed, but our court system is pretty fucked at the moment. There are substantial backlogs.

https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/contact-or-visit-us/press-office/press-releases/backlogs-continue-to-spiral-in-crisis-ridden-criminal-justice-system

Bringing a case with such poor prospects of success to court takes up valuable resources that could be used for a case that could actually achieve something positive. It's a terrible idea that has nothing to recommend it.

Having an unforeseeable medical event isn’t a crime 🙄 It not being a crime doesn’t diminish the tragic death of these two young girls or make them less serious. It’s horrible - but it was an accident and the driver isn’t to blame.

I’d be really interested as to why you think she is. Should she have foreseen an event in the future?? Every day in the U.K. 80 people are newly diagnosed with epilepsy. The first sign they had it will be a seizure. Most won’t be driving, but some will. Everyone is at risk of having a seizure or developing epilepsy. Maybe none of us should drive then?? That’s not to mentions strokes and heartaches.

Given the prosecution don’t believe that a crime has been committed, how would you envisage the court case would play out? How can they even begin to prosecute a crime that they don’t believe exists in this case?

It's an interesting thought. As if the CPS aren't stretched enough already.

I hear you and agree. The families should be consulted and their opinion taken. I can’t imagine the trauma they are going through. The full process should be heard in court. I understand that it was a tragic accident from the medical side but this should be heard in court as well. What the families want should be done.

Who do you think should act as the prosecution in court?

Will you be the one to tell the victim and families who'd otherwise be in the court that their ordeals have to be dragged out even further so we can indulge in this charade?

Probably some loudmouth on twitter who got their law degree from the university of the Daily Mail comments section.

No it shouldn't. Thankfully our legal system isn't based on 'what families want'. This thread is mental

Or are just saying that an extra court procedure should be created, which has never happened for any case before, in which the CPS have to go through their normal investigative process in a court room while everyone watches?
Then when everyone asks for this same procedure to take place for their particular case, because they want it to, what happens then?

It is mental - just like the threads about the Nottingham murderer. This is different because it’s an accident but IMHO the families should be heard and it should go further if they want.

I don’t know the processes. I just think that the families should be heard. I see it’s not a popular opinion here.

Further to what? Investigation has happened. The children are still dead. The woman still had her first seizure. It's all terrible... But not punishable.... Because it was an accident