TINDALL v CHIEF CONSTABLE OF THAMES VALLEY POLICE

摘要

H2 After a motorist had skidded off a country road on black ice formed from water leaking and flooding the road, he was concerned that other vehicles might also encounter the unexpected ice and have accidents. He accordingly started to warn approaching vehicles, and, when the police attended, he stressed to them that the situation was dangerous. The police put out a warning sign while the debris from the motorist's accident was cleared, but removed it once that had been done and took no steps to warn motorists of the hazard created by the ice. Not long afterwards, as the claimant's husband was driving along that stretch of road, an oncoming motorist lost control of his vehicle on the ice and collided head on with the claimant's husband. Both drivers were killed. A police disciplinary tribunal found the police officers who had attended the original accident guilty of misconduct, and the inquest found that more should have been done by both the police and the highway authority. The claimant brought proceedings in negligence against the chief constable and the highway authority, contending that by removing the original motorist from the scene, and not leaving the road safe, the police officers had made matters worse than if they had not attended.