The UK police watchdog is trying to establish whether or not a police officer was in pursuit of a taxi moments before it collided with the car of an Irish couple in Devon on Friday, it said this evening.
Oisín Twomey (18 months) from Co Cork was killed after a Polish driver collided with his parents' car at high-speed.
Co Cork couple Con (39) and Elber (36) Twomey were on holiday when the collision occurred. They remain in a critical condition in hospital. Their unborn child also died in hospital.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission has decided to “independently investigate police actions and decisions before the collision, including whether or not an officer was in pursuit of a black Vauxhall Vectra,” it said.
Today it emerged that police had been alerted to concerns about the Polish man 35 minutes before the crash.
Police were called at 2.10pm after the man had driven off in his taxi which was a black Vauxhall Vectra. Police treated the report as a high risk missing person.
A police officer in a marked car saw the man’s taxi on the road near Torquay at 2.45pm, just before the fatal collision. The man in his 20s later died from his injuries.
Police in Devon are trying to establish whether or not he deliberately crashed into the Irish car.
The watchdog appealed for witnesses to the crash to come forward. “This is a tragedy for the family and friends of those who died and also those still in hospital” and it would be “using its own investigators to establish what happened,” Rachel Cerfontyne of the Independent Police Complaints Commission said.
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