Police who chased fatal crash couple ‘acted appropriately’
PREGNANT SHAUNA MCDONAGH, 18, AND HER HUSBAND PATRICK, 19, WERE KILLED AFTER THEY DROVE ONTO THE WRONG SIDE OF THE A40 IN ACTON
POLICE officers who pursued a young couple on the A40 in West London – a chase which resulted in the newlyweds fatally crashing – “acted appropriately” while responding to the incident, an investigation has found.
Pregnant Shauna McDonagh, 18, and her husband Patrick McDonagh, 19, were killed after they drove onto the wrong side of the A40 in Acton after a nine-minute police chase on February 10, 2019.
The couple had originally been pulled over by police for jumping a red light at the junction of Elm Avenue and Field End Road, Ruislip at 8.50pm.
However, when a police officer approached the car ‘to make sure everything was okay’ it drove off at speed.
An authorised pursuit began, a marked police traffic car joined the pursuit and pursued it along the A40 Eastbound, with another marked police traffic car joining the pursuit at the Target Roundabout, Northolt.
Shortly before 9.03pm, the Renault Megane crossed on to the wrong carriageway of the A40, driving against the flow of traffic. The police pursuit was ended, and no police vehicle followed it on to the wrong side.
Within 90 seconds, the car collided head-on with a coach travelling westbound on Western Avenue (A40).
Patrick, the driver, and Shauna died at the scene. A male passenger was taken to hospital and discharged the following day. An Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) investigation found the Metropolitan Police officers “acted appropriately” when they pursued the Renault which had failed to stop when requested.
A spokesperson for the IOPC said:
“During the investigation, which concluded in February 2020, we attended the post incident procedure. We took statements from more than 30 police officers, police staff and members of the public and secured and analysed video footage, CCTV, officers’ communication over the airwaves and body-worn video recordings of the incident.
“The officers involved were treated as witnesses throughout the investigation.”
IOPC Regional Director Sal Naseem said: “Our thoughts remain with all those affected by this tragic incident. We provided our investigation report to the MPS and HM Coroner
when our investigation concluded in 2020 and we assisted the inquest by providing the evidence we gathered.
“It is important we establish all of the circumstances of fatal road traffic incidents involving the police when they happen.
“The available evidence was analysed in great detail in drawing our conclusion that there was no evidence to indicate that the police caused or contributed to the tragic deaths of Patrick and Shauna.”
An inquest at West London Coroner’s Court on Tuesday (February 9) heard Patrick drove for 0.7 miles past 57 vehicles on the wrong side of the road. Shocking footage from a police helicopter tracking the Renault showed the moment the vehicle crashed into a single level coach full of passengers as the coach tried to change lanes to avoid a car slowing down in front of it.
Neither Shauna nor Patrick were wearing seatbelts but Patrick’s cousin, Michael McDonagh, who was in the front passenger seat of the car with the couple, survived the crash as he was wearing one.
Coroner Chinyere Inyama told the inquest the reason why Patrick made the decision to drive onto the wrong side of the road following a ‘low level’ police chase will never be known.
He told the jury: “We will never know why Patrick drove how he did.”
The cause of death was listed differently for the couple after two days of evidence at West London Coroner’s Court.
Shauna died as a result of chest, head and abdominal injuries shortly after the collision and her cause of death was listed as a road traffic accident, the jury ruled.
Patrick died as a result of a traumatic rupture, it was heard. His cause of death was listed as misadventure – a death caused by a person accidentally while performing a legal act without negligence or intent to harm.