Paramedic Edward Riding who caused death of colleague Alice Clark through careless ambulance driving suspended by professional tribunal
An ambulance driver has escaped being struck off from the profession after causing the death of a colleague. However, Edward Riding, who was convicted of causing the death of 21-year-old Alice Clark in Tonbridge[1] three years ago, will face a suspension, the Health and Care Professions Tribunal Service (HCPTS) has ruled.
Riding pleaded guilty on January 29 last year at Maidstone Crown Court to causing Miss Clark's death by driving his ambulance without due care and attention. The court heard that Riding, now 46, was answering a 999 call when he mistook a layby on the A21 for a turn-off.
He first bounced off the kerb, then struck a parked lorry before plunging into the back of a parked cement truck. Just before making the turn, the ambulance had been travelling at 89mph. Miss Clark, from Newington near Sittingbourne,[2] had only completed her training two months before.
She died at the scene. A second paramedic, Megan Kuhn, who was in the back of the ambulance, suffered head injuries but has since made a full recovery.
The driver of the cement lorry also suffered minor injuries in the crash on January 5, 2022.
Riding appeared before an HCPTS hearing on Monday, where it was alleged that his conviction impaired his fitness to practise his profession. Parts of the hearing concerning Riding's health and private life were not held in public.
Riding, from Kemps Farm Road, Crowborough, was employed by the South East Coast Ambulance Service (SECAmb) at the time. He was himself injured in the accident and was airlifted to hospital, suffering rib fractures, a dislocated left hip, a closed tibia fracture and fractures to his kneecap.
He was sentenced by the Crown Court to nine months imprisonment, suspended for 18 months, and ordered to undertake 150 hours of community work and disqualified from driving for 15 months. The tribunal heard that there had been concerns raised by SECAmb staff before the accident about Riding's standard of driving.
Riding's lawyer said that he took responsibility for his actions and said that his character has been "forever changed" by the events. She said he was in any case not sure that he would "even want to drive an ambulance again" although he did want to return to work as a paramedic.
She said Riding posed no risk of repeating his conduct.
The tribunal found that Riding's offence was "extremely serious" but considered his remorse to be genuine and the risk of repetition of such poor conduct to be "low." The hearing was told Riding had not deliberately set out to hurt anyone, had shown remorse and had otherwise been "a good paramedic".
The panel imposed a 12-month suspension on Riding. Speaking about their daughter after the accident, Ms Clark's parents said: "Alice was so excited to qualify as a paramedic and looked forward to every shift.
"She was a beautiful, kind, fun-loving daughter, sister and granddaughter. "She loved to travel and anyone who met her loved her."
"She will be missed more than words can say by family and friends."
At her inquest, the coroner Roger Hatch was critical of SECAmb for not having proper procedures in place to check on their staff's driving standards and he issued a Prevention of Future Deaths Report. In the report, Mr Hatch said if the ambulance trust had acted on previous complaints about Riding's driving, Miss Clark's death might have been avoided.
SECAmb insists it has since tightened up and introduced new safety checks.
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.
Dozens of paramedics lined the entrance road to the Garden of England Crematorium, in Bobbing, for her funeral in February 2022.
References
- ^ Tonbridge (www.kentonline.co.uk)
- ^ Sittingbourne, (www.kentonline.co.uk)