A horror crash involving several teenagers in the early hours of December 13 last year will have caused unimaginable sadness for the families of the victims.
Christmas was coming, the teens had their whole lives ahead of them – but then tragedy struck.
Summer Louise Scott, 17, was behind the wheel of a silver Toyota Corolla when the vehicle left the single-carriage road and crashed into a tree on the outskirts of Rotherham. She died at the scene – along with one of her passengers.
While we still don’t know what caused Summer’s fatal crash, an 18-year-old has been arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving and a 19-year-old has been arrested on suspicion of perverting the course of justice. Both remain on bail.
The accident became even more of a tragedy, perhaps even a scandal, when police misidentified the second fatality.
It was Joshua Johnson, 18, who died – but South Yorkshire Police told all the families involved that it was his friend Trevor Wynn, 17, who had been killed.
The mistake only came to light this week when the surviving boy regained consciousness. With Joshua’s parents keeping vigil at his bedside, believing him to their son, the boy who had been in hospital for three weeks finally exposed the truth. ‘I’m Trevor,’ he said.
Dear God, how could such a blunder have happened?
South Yorkshire Police told families initially that Trevor Wynn, 17, was the one who died in the crash
But it was 18-year-old Joshua Johnson who had in fact died
South Yorkshire Police have reported themselves to the Independent Office for Police Conduct over its identification process – and rightfully so. In the meantime, they have apologised profusely to the families, but is that enough? Everyone is up in arms over this nightmare – and it’s not hard to understand why.
If something like this can go so catastrophically wrong, then what else is going amiss?
Couples going home from hospital with the wrong babies, urns being delivered to the bereaved full of the ashes of strangers, coma patients having their life-support machines switched off as they silently scream inside?
Do I sound hysterical? To be honest with you, I feel slightly frantic about all of this.
So much of the serious business of life and death is in the hands of unknown professionals, people in whom we place implicit trust in our darkest moments. And when something like this happens, it not only breaks our bond of faith and confidence in other people, but sparks our deepest fears. And for those personally involved? Emotional pandemonium.
Joshua’s parents took to Facebook to share their bewilderment and grief, writing: ‘What we have been through and are continuing to go through is unimaginable. From the moment we were told about the collision in December, ourselves and many loved ones have spent hours in hospital with who we now know to be Trevor. We never wanted him to be alone.
‘Only those we shared this time with could understand how this went on for so long.’
Well, quite. Trevor’s family may have had a happier outcome, but even then the psychological toll of the past month must be brutal and difficult to negotiate.
The initial shock of what you believe to be your son’s violent and sudden death, followed by weeks of grieving. And then to suddenly be informed that he isn’t dead after all? A glorious miracle, but one still tarred with grief and confusion.
And Joshua’s parents, so thankful, so grateful their son was the sole survivor! Only to be dealt the cruellest of all blows as they sat by what they believed to be his bed, willing him to get better.
These poor mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers. My sympathy to them all as they adjust to this new reality, as one journey into grief halts and another just begins.
But how could it happen? Yes it was a terrible mistake – but perhaps understandable in the circumstances? In the mayhem of a fatal road accident in the middle of the night with two lookalike teens, even the hospital and families failed to spot the misidentification. Surviving Trevor was under sedation and, one can only assume, under a lot of bandages, too.
So is it wrong to entirely blame the police?
Well, not really. It transpires that an officer was given descriptions from family members, along with photographic ID to establish the crash victim – but somehow still got it wrong.
It points to a police force under pressure and comes at a time when many are calling for tougher rules for new, young drivers. In Canada, there are useful restrictions on nighttime driving for newly qualified teens and also on passenger numbers in the first months after passing a test, which has resulted in a drop in death and injury caused by new drivers.
Could something similar be introduced here?
The Government has just brought in a new road safety strategy – the first for over a decade – which includes plans for a lowered drink-drive limit, regular eye tests for drivers over 70 and the introduction of endorsements for seatbelt offences.
They are also proposing a mandatory minimum learning period of three or six months for learner drivers in England and Wales, which would require a waiting period between passing the theory test and taking the practical driving test. But what good is that really going to do? It takes about six months to get a driving test appointment anyway. And surely in the end it is not the months that count, but the hours behind the wheel?
It is a tragedy that Summer Louise Scott and Joshua Johnson died. Drivers aged 17 to 24 are statistically in the most danger on British roads due to inexperience, risk-taking and also driving at high-risk times.
Younger men are four times more likely to be killed or seriously injured than those aged 25 and over, despite making up a small fraction of British driving licence holders.
One can respect the privacy and grieving of these poor, tortured families while still wondering what these youngsters were doing driving around Rotherham at 3am on a Saturday morning.
Give Jesy and the girls support
Jesy Nelson has called for more screenings for Spinal Muscular Atrophy in babies after revealing her twin girls had been diagnosed with the condition
Little Mix star Jesy Nelson has shared her twin daughters’ Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) type one diagnosis.
At just seven months old, Ocean Jade and Story Monroe will face difficult futures in which they might not be able to walk and could be confined to wheelchairs. Devastating for them and their mother, too.
‘I just want to be a mum, not a nurse,’ said the pop star on This Morning, as she faces the prospect of battling this progressive muscular condition, in a home filled with medical equipment.
Jesy is using her platform to push for more SMA screening for babies. ‘It is just a heel prick,’ she said. Surely the cost doesn’t matter if it will stop just one more family from having to endure this distress and difficulty.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting agrees and said this week: ‘I will be picking up the issues she has raised around screening.’
Will he really? Watch this space.
Has Meghan really sold nearly a million jars of her runny, overpriced jam and made £26million from the proceeds? Surely there aren’t enough raspberries in her Montecito back garden to meet the demand? What about the honey? Her bees must be exhausted. A million jars? Stop it.
Our UK police farces are a joke
All in all, not a good week for UK police forces.
In addition to the misidentification of a dead teenager by the South Yorkshire Police after a fatal car accident, there have been more omnishambles from the boys in blue.
It’s emerged that the Metropolitan Police failed to properly vet officers during a desperate recruitment drive, allowing rapists, racists and violent offenders to join the force. What comforting news for visitors and those of us who live in London.
Kemi Badenoch has accused West Midlands police of capitulating to Islamists over the banning of Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from attending a football match in Birmingham last year. ‘They knew extremists were planning to attack Jews for going to a football match, and their response was to blame and remove Jewish people instead,’ she said.
‘We have had enough of this in Britain. The chief constable’s position is untenable. The British police serve the British public, not local sectarian interests.’
Hear, hear. Meanwhile, a Merseyside detective has been sacked for misconduct after paying a 17-year-old boy for sex. Elsewhere, eight police officers from Durham have been suspended over alleged misbehaviour on a boozy holiday to Spain, where some of them received an ‘inappropriate tattoo’.
What could it have been? I shudder to think. A swastika?
Regular readers know that I come from a police family, but holy crime busters, sometimes even I despair.
Meanwhile, without any help from the police, plucky shop owner Christine Colbert used Apple AirTags to hunt down the thieves who stole more than £250,000 of bags from her Cheshire boutique. By the time officers did respond to the information Christine had given them, the robbers had fled.
Christine, they were probably too busy committing crimes themselves. Or getting offensive tattoos to cheer themselves up.
Yes, we should shine a light on grubby life of BBC’s Huw
Martin Clunes looks suitably terrifying and diabolical in his role as Huw Edwards in an upcoming Channel 5 drama about the former BBC news reader’s downfall.
It has barely been a year since the disgraced star was given a six-month suspended sentence after pleading guilty to possessing indecent images of children and was also found to be grooming a vulnerable 17-year-old boy.
Martin Clunes looks suitably terrifying and diabolical in his role as Huw Edwards, writes Jan Moir
Now a two-part series will tell all – including details of The Sun newspaper’s investigation which first exposed Edwards’ crimes.
I hope there will be roles for former BBC stars Emily Maitlis and Jon Sopel, who initially sneered on their podcast at the newspaper’s revelations. Are Statler and Waldorf free?
And also perhaps there could be a cameo for former education secretary Gillian Keegan, who during the early days of the investigation suggested there’s a ‘tricky thing with journalism, to get that line between privacy and public interest and whether they got that right I’m sure will come out’.
Well, it did come out, in more ways than one. And they were right, in all ways – but that is still not enough for some people.
Is it because Huw Edwards is middle class that so many want to give him a free pass?
While discussing Edwards on Loose Women this week, Nadia Sawalha suggested ‘nobody is just one thing’ and we shouldn’t all rush to judge. Others are meeping that it is ‘too soon’ for an Edwards drama. It is never too soon. Look at what the Royal Family have had to endure with The Crown.
This is an important story about a man in a position of power who leveraged his fame to betray his status. And we can all learn lessons from that.
