An inquest has found that a crash which killed three people on a major A-road may have been avoided had police not been given an incorrect location. The Metropolitan Police has changed the way 999 operators are trained following the fatal incident, in which emergency responders were too late to prevent the crash on the A13 in east London on July 15, 2024.
Officers were first alerted to a collision involving a speeding BMW One series and a Ford Transit van at 9.12pm. An inquest heard that a call handler was told by a passing driver that the incident had occurred at the Wennington interchange between the A13 and the A1306.
Victims and the Second Collision
Sachin Kalia, 19, Davina Kaur Ruprah, 24, and Kiranjeet Sagoo, 36, were all killed in a subsequent crash after emergency services failed to clear the first incident in sufficient time. Walthamstow Coroner’s Court heard that the Ford Transit van remained parked in the central reservation and slightly obstructing the outside lane.
The inquest found that the call handler had incorrectly logged the only possible location of the crash as Dagenham junction. Police therefore found no sign of the incident when they arrived at the given location four miles away, even after checking adjacent junctions.
Met Police Response and Training Changes
The call handler’s mistake was spotted later in the day, but the supervisory team did not give them any feedback or training. The Met Police said the employee had been subsequently asked to undertake 'learning through reflection' to ensure they understood the importance of logging accurate information.
The force also accepted a finding that it was over-reliant on imprecise mobile phone location data. It said that call handlers were now required to undertake training in What3Words, with mast data to only be treated as a secondary indicator. Operators would also be taught to pick up on and challenge inconsistencies and ask for further clarification if required.
Coroner's Findings
In her prevention of future deaths report, Coroner Nina Persaud said had officers been given the correct location they would have likely arrived in time to prevent the second fatal collision. She wrote: 'If they had arrived before the second collision, the officers were trained to park their car in the 'fend off' position, so as to slow the traffic in the lanes two and three, and minimise the risk to other road users.'
'They may have also elected to remove the Ford Transit from the central reservation. Therefore, had the MPS officers attended the correct location, it is likely that the fatal collision could have been avoided.'
