Woman killed and boy, 2, fights for life as police chase ends in tragedy

BY JULIE MOULT – Last updated at 18:59pm on 30th March 2008A woman was killed and a man and a two-year-old child left fighting for life after a car being chased by police ploughed into them.

The three – believed to be a family – were travelling together in a car when they were hit head-on in the early hours of Sunday morning. They have yet to be identified.

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Police in an unmarked vehicle had been chasing two men in a black Mercedes people carrier seconds before the fatal smash

Police in an unmarked vehicle had been chasing two men in a black Mercedes people carrier seconds before the fatal smash in Bethnal Green, East London.

The scene resembled a bomb site with the smashed-up remains of half a dozen cars littering the street.

Clothes cut from the injured remained on the ground as police accident investigators began their probe.

The blue Vauxhall Corsa – from which the fatally-injured woman was cut out – was barely recognizable, lying about fifty yards away from the Mercedes which was rammed into the side of another car.

Locals gathered at the spot yesterday to see the horrific aftermath of the pile-up.

The crash comes almost a decade after newsreader Sheena McDonald was lucky to survive when she was hit by a speeding police van, travelling on the wrong side of the road.

Miss McDonald spent 72 hours in a coma after suffering massive head injuries. She later went on to sue the Metropolitan Police.

The accident prompted a review of standards of police driving. According to the Home Office, 126 people lost their lives in accidents involving police vehicles in England and Wales between 2000 and 2004.

Witnesses to this latest collision say both cars jumped a red light at a junction before the Mercedes careered into at least six others, including the Corsa.

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A woman was killed and a man and a two-year-old child were left fighting for life after after their Corsa was hit

Paramedics battled to save the woman in her thirties but she was pronounced dead at 4.30am, forty five minutes after the smash.

The man was last night in intensive care at the Royal London Hospital with severe head injuries. The little girl was taken to the same hospital as a precaution.

A 45-year-old woman, who was in one of the other cars, is in a stable condition in Homerton Hospital with serious leg injuries while a 47-year-old man was treated for minor back injuries.

A London Ambulance Service spokesman said five ambulances, a duty officer and an air ambulance team in a car were sent to the scene.

The spokesman added: “Sadly an adult female was pronounced dead at the scene. An adult male was taken to the Royal London Hospital.”

His condition was described as “life-threatening”.

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The scene with the smashed-up remains of half a dozen cars

Two men who fled the scene – believed to be occupants of the Mercedes – were later arrested and are in police custody.

The owner of a nearby taxi firm said one of his drivers had chased the driver and wrestled with him in the street but he had shaken him off and sprinted away.

He said: “It was chaos. The police didn’t know whether to chase the man or tend to the injured. They chose to help the other passengers first because people were so badly injured.

“There was a person lying on the ground who may have been a pedestrian crossing the junction when it happened.

“Their clothes are still lying on the road where the paramedics cut them off.

“It was ten minutes until the emergency services got there and no-one knew what to do.

He went on: “We heard the huge noises one after another as the cars piled up.

“One of our taxis was the last to crash and it was a write-off, so you can imagine the impact on the cars at the front.

“The Corsa had two passengers and they had to be cut out of the wreckage. There was a child in the back.

“They were carried out away on stretchers. Everyone was shouting and screaming and it wasn’t clear who people were.

“Cars were on both sides of the road. One of the passengers in a cab got out and started arguing with someone from the people carrier. Police had to arrest him because they were about to start fighting.

“The driver of the people carrier jumped out and ran away from the scene. One of my drivers struggled with him and tried to keep hold of him but he broke free and ran away.

“He said the man was over 6ft and he couldn’t keep hold of him.”

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The blue Vauxhall Corsa – from which the fatally-injured woman was cut out

Resident Michelle Roberts, 52, was woken by the noise.

Miss Roberts, a personal assistant, said: “There was a loud bang – and then another and another, like a series of explosions.

“I thought a bomb had gone off at first. The next thing I heard was this awful screaming. It was a woman and a man screaming in desperation.

“I didn’t look out the window or go outside because I knew something awful had happened.

“Then there was the sirens blaring out which must have been the ambulances and the police arriving. It sounded like chaos out there.”

After the accident a section of Bethnal Green Road remained cordoned off as accident investigators picked through the debris and mangled vehicles which included two black cabs.

Scotland Yard’s Department of Professional Standards has launched an investigation as is routine when police cars are involved in accidents.

A police spokesman said. “At approx 03.45 an unmarked police car was made aware of a black Mercedes car on Bethnal Green Road.

“The unmarked police car put on blue lights to alert the Mercedes to stop. At this stage the Mercedes drove away at speed and was in collision with another vehicle – a blue Vauxhall Corsa.

“The occupants of the black Mercedes decamped from the scene.

“LAS attended and three people – one man, one woman and a female child – all travelling in the blue Vauxhall Corsa were treated at the scene. The woman – aged in her 30s – was pronounced dead at the scene at 04.30.

“All next of kin have yet to be been informed. Formal identification has yet to take place and a post mortem will be arranged in due course.”

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