Somerset girl who died fleeing police ‘had removed handcuffs’

Tamzin Hall, 17, died as she was being taken to a custody suite in Bridgwater by two officers in an Avon and Somerset Police car in November last year.

Somerset teenager dies on M5 motorway after fleeing police[1] On Thursday, an annual report on deaths following police contact gave additional details about how Tamzin, who had been arrested on suspicion of assault and criminal damage, got out of the car.

The report, published by watchdog the Independent Office for Police Conduct, detailed how she was able to remove her handcuffs and climb from the rear passenger side seat to the front passenger seat of the police car. The report, which does not name Tamzin, says: "A female child was arrested for assault and criminal damage. "She was placed in the rear passenger side of a marked police car and handcuffed with her hands positioned in front.

An officer was seated next to her during transport." "While on her way to custody, the child managed to remove her handcuffs, climb into the front passenger seat, access the front passenger door and get out of the moving car." "The child ran across the road and was struck by a vehicle being driven by a member of the public, on the opposite carriageway.

The child died at the scene." The police vehicle stopped on the northbound carriageway of the M5 between junctions 25 at Taunton and 24 at Bridgwater shortly after 11pm on November 11 last year. Later that month an inquest hearing at Wells Town Hall was told Tamzin, who was a student, got out of the car and crossed the road before climbing the crash barrier.

She was hit by a vehicle driven by a member of the public travelling on the southbound carriageway and sustained fatal head, neck and chest injuries.

The IOPC is investigating her death, including the contact that two Avon and Somerset Police officers had with Tamzin before she died.

It is examining their "actions, decision-making and risk assessments of the situation and whether these followed relevant training and policies".

References

1. ^ Somerset teenager dies on M5 motorway after fleeing police (www.bridgwatermercury.co.uk)