Having a vehicle impounded in the wake of a collision can be a disaster in its own right for some operators. We ask Inspector Rik Wenham of the Met’s Commercial Vehicle Unit (CVU) and Charlotte Le Maire, barrister with LMP Legal, to talk us through what happens next.
“If the collision was fatal, we have what’s called the RV Beckford ruling,” Wenham tells us. This is an example of a law made by precedent after a case in court, rather than through Parliament. “RV Beckford entitles the family of the deceased to an independent forensic mechanical examination of that vehicle,” he explains. “But doing that can be prohibitively expensive, so 90% of the time the family will say no – they’ll have been told that the police will be doing their own forensic mechanical examination anyway.” Assuming the family does decline, the best-case scenario for vehicle release is at least a couple of weeks.
If the family says yes, however, it can be far longer. “Normally then the vehicle is kept until the coronial process is finished, because the coroner can also ask for an examination,” Wenham says. “Worst-case scenario, we’ve had one in for over 18 months, because it was a foreign national that had died, so the coroner refused to release it.” In that instance, the vehicle was a heavy wrecker. “That was someone’s livelihood,” Wenham reminds us. “And it sat in our pound for 18 months.”
One of the changes Wenham has brought in at the Met CVU is the appointment of a dedicated commercial vehicle point of contact for the company involved. “Because the detectives are doing their detective stuff, the forensic examiners are doing the forensic stuff, and the company is generally left out in the cold,” he admits. “A 44-tonne bulk tipper is costing about £25,000 a week to a company that’s operating it, so we do try now to provide a conduit for information.”
If either the driver or operator could potentially be prosecuted, things can take longer again. “Because the truck is effectively evidence of a crime, it can be kept right up until the end of a trial,” Le Maire warns. “That could even be a couple of years, which has horrific cost implications for operators, especially smaller ones.” She and her colleagues do try and intervene on this whenever they can. “First of all, we’ll want one of our defence experts to examine the vehicle before it gets repaired, so we’re on an equal footing with the police should any charges come,” Le Maire explains. “Then at that point we’ll put pressure on for it to be released as soon as possible.” This is, she says, successful in around 60% to 70% of cases.
When the operator is allowed to collect a vehicle, it’s absolutely vital to move quickly. “We have to carefully liaise with the police, because literally a day after they want to get rid of it, they’ll start charging for keeping it,” Le Maire cautions. Sadly, not all forces are as amenable as Wenham’s Met CVU. “In this kind of case, it’s very front-loaded,” she continues. “We have to be quick, but also very careful to act, in order not to prejudice our client – to make sure their position is protected.” After all, it could be 18 months later that the driver or company finds themselves being charged.
Assuming all this gets sorted out with the minimum time and hassle, there remains one more consideration – cleaning the vehicle up. Be warned, there’s no easy way to talk about this. “Generally, we won’t recover vehicles covered in human debris,” Wenham says. “We will recover as much of that human to the coroner as possible.” It’s only after that happens that an officer will drive the vehicle back to wherever it is going to be kept, a job Wenham has undertaken himself in the past.
“It’s very rare that vehicles are kept under cover, so any blood or similar has generally washed off by the time they’re returned,” he continues. “But there’s nothing that will stop us throwing a jet wash over a vehicle. Ultimately, however, it’s the victims who are the police’s first priority. Just from a moral point of view, we’re obliged to make sure that the family gets as much of its loved one back as we possibly can.”
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