A CORONER has written three ‘preventing future death’ reports after a teenage motorcyclist was struck by a car near the Oxfordshire border.
Harry Dunn, of Charlton near Banbury, was killed in August 2019 when US government employee Anne Sacoolas’s car collided with his bike while she was driving on the wrong side of the road outside RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire.
The 19-year-old was pronounced dead at the Major Trauma Centre of John Radcliffe Hospital.
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Following the crash, diplomatic immunity was asserted on Sacoolas’s behalf by the US State Department and she was able to leave the country shortly after the crash.
She refused to attend her sentence for causing death by careless driving on December 8, 2022, where she was handed an eight-month prison sentence, suspended for 12 months.
An inquest was held after Mr Dunn’s death in Northamptonshire which concluded on June 13 this year.
Coroner Anna Pember has now written three ‘preventing future death’ reports following Mr Dunn’s death expressing her concerns with how the collision was handled.
The first report was sent to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, addressing the lack of emergency services available in the area at the time.
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She wrote: “No resources were available within either the operating area of the relevant ambulance trust, East Midlands Ambulance Service Trust, or within the neighbouring South Central Ambulance Service Trust.
“I am concerned that these continuing delays for ambulances at hospital handovers reflects a risk of deaths into the future.”
The second report was sent to The Americas Section of the Foreign and Commonwealth and Development Office, The Ministry of Defence Police, and The Ministry of Defence, addressing concerns about Sacoolas not familiaring herself with the UK Highway Code.
Ms Pember said Sacoolas should have received ‘appropriate training’ from the US military.
The last report was sent to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, addressing concerns about the analgesia administered to Mr Dunn.
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She stated that a ‘potentially life-saving’ analgesia which can be administered to patients unable to have intravenous analgesics is unavailable to the paramedic teams despite being available to UK military personnel and mountain rescue teams.
Ms Pember wrote: “I am concerned that the unavailability of such analgesics to paramedics to assist them to deliver potentially life saving pre-hospital treatment.”
The departments have 56 days upon receiving the reports to issue a response detailing any they have taken, action that is proposed, or an explanation as to why no action is proposed.
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