SECAmb implements changes after careless driving by one of its staff caused the death of paramedic Alice Clark from Sittingbourne in A21 crash
Changes in the way ambulance drivers are monitored, and how colleagues can raise concerns, have been made after a young paramedic died in a crash. South East Coast Ambulance Service (SECAmb) has yet to respond to a Prevention of Future Deaths Report ordered by a coroner but insists it had already put safety measures in place.
In January 2022, newly qualified medic Alice Clark, 21, from Newington near Sittingbourne, died when the ambulance in which she was travelling crashed on the A21 at Sevenoaks. The ambulance driver, Edward Riding, 45, later pleaded guilty[1] to causing his colleague's death by his careless driving.
Riding, of Kemps Farm Road, Crowborough, was driving to an emergency when he was diverted and took a wrong turn, before hitting a kerb causing the ambulance to veer across the road. After an inquest was held into Miss Clark's death in October this year, coroner Roger Hatch was critical of a lack of SECAmb procedures to check the standard of driving exhibited by its ambulance drivers. He issued a Prevention Of Future Deaths Order, giving SECAmb 56 days to tell him what measures they had put in place to prevent a similar accident from occurring in future.
Mr Hatch said the trust had failed to act when it had received complaints - even before the accident - about Riding's behaviour from other members of their staff.
Mr Hatch suggested that had the trust acted then, Miss Clark's death may have been avoided.
He said: "Complaints had been received by other paramedic passengers as to the unsafe driving standards of Mr Riding and these were not dealt with appropriately. "I am concerned that this could occur again in the future and put lives at risk. "There was no formal complaint procedure in place.
"I am concerned that if a paramedic raises a complaint with their supervisor, there are no written notes or statements taken and the paramedic is not updated regarding any investigation. "I am concerned that without a set complaint procedure in place with statement taking, interviews and time-limits, lives could be at risk."
Mr Hatch was also critical of the practice the trust had of assessing driving standards by a "drive-out" with a manager. He suggested driving standards should be carried out by independent assessors and completed within a set time, perhaps as frequently as every six months.
He also suggested the trust should have a process established to regularly review CCTV footage of driving standards.
The trust said this week it had only received the notice from the coroner's court on December 13 and it would respond formally within the allotted 56 days. But, it said, it had already made the necessary changes to increase safety.
SECAmb said: "Following Alice's death, the trust has strengthened and increased the range of measures in place to increase the safety of our colleagues, patients and other road users. "These include reinforcing a number of key driving standard policies, stressing the importance of safe driving practices with our colleagues when driving and travelling on our ambulances and, importantly, putting measures in place to allow staff concerns to be investigated and acted on swiftly.
"We are committed to ensuring that everyone who travels in our ambulances, as well as other road users, are and feel as safe as possible and we will do whatever is needed to ensure that this is the case."
During Miss Clark's inquest, the coroner heard that at 8.16pm on January 5, 2022, the ambulance on blue lights had been heading coastbound on the A21 when "for reasons unknown" the driver took a slip-road towards a layby instead of the next exit off the A21 at Morley's Road roundabout. The ambulance collided with the offside kerb, then the rear nearside of a parked Scania dropside lorry, the force of which caused the ambulance to cross the layby to the nearside, where it had then collided with the rear of a stationary Volvo Tanker cement lorry.
The impact caused the ambulance to become embedded into the rear of the tanker, trapping both the driver, Riding, and the front seat passenger, Miss Clark, in the vehicle. A third medic, Megan Kuhn, was sat in the rear of the ambulance and was able to get out with assistance, but she suffered concussion and a bleed on the brain.
Miss Clark died at the scene.
Riding himself suffered multiple fractures and was flown by air ambulance to King's College Hospital in London. Telemetric data from the ambulance was later to show that Ridings had been driving at 84mph when he swung into the layby.
He was sentenced at Maidstone Crown Court in April to nine months in prison, suspended for 18 months. Miss Clark was a former pupil at Rainham Mark Grammar School.
She left in 2018 and went to the University of Greenwich to study to become a paramedic, graduating in July 2021.
She had joined SECAmb only two months before the crash.
Dozens of paramedics lined the entrance road to the Garden of England Crematorium, in Bobbing, for her funeral in February 2022.
Her father told the court that Alice's "brilliant life had been cut far too short by a careless act that could and should have been avoided".
References
- ^ later pleaded guilty (kentonline.co.uk)