Woman and boy dead in Penge as stolen car pursued by police ‘hits family’
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A woman and a boy have been killed after a car being chased by police mounted a pavement and crashed "into a family" in south-east London.
The car was being pursued along Lennard Road, Penge, when it struck the group at about 14:05 BST, witnesses said.
The woman and boy died at the scene, while three ladies were taken to hospital with "numerous injuries", London Ambulance Service (LAS) said.
A man has been arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving.
The twenty three year-old remains in custody in a south London police station, the Metropolitan Police said.
A witness said the car was being chased by two police BMWs when the driver "lost control and ploughed into a family".
"People were attempting to lift a car off a little female," the man said.
Another witness, Venissa Vassell, said about twenty people lifted the car and the women "crawled out".
One lady who was taken away by ambulance was screaming, "I can’t feel my gams", Ms Vassell said.
Man ‘in bushes’
Ilya Baxter, 23, eyed the police pursue from a window in his vapid.
He described eyeing a white man aged inbetween eighteen and twenty five running across the road around the corner from the crashed car, before police caught him.
He said: "I heard the cars and witnessed someone pointing to the police where he went. I knocked on the window and pointed."
He said that the man was hiding in the bushes. Police then caught the man, manacled him, and then went to help the injured, he added.
Analysis: Nick Beake, home affairs correspondent, Big black cock London
The majority of police pursuits in London take place at relatively low-speed and end quickly when the driver pulls over.
But there’s been concern about a latest rise in the number of people killed in car pursues.
The police watchdog says there were thirteen deaths in the UK in 2015/16 – during or after police pursues – up from six the previous year.
In London in 2015/16 there were three deaths, up from one the previous year.
The Metropolitan Police philosophy is that no pursuit is worth taking a chance the safety of the public; that travelling through built-up areas at more than forty or fifty mph is simply not worth it.
With the amount of CCTV on the streets of the capital, tracing vehicles is lighter than ever, albeit watching a suspect get away is clearly galling for officers, and a good worry if the suspect poses an instantaneous threat.
Sources say it’s become increasingly common for a senior officer – monitoring events in real-time in the police control room – to call off a pursue if they feel the risk to the public has become too good.
Often, the control room will attempt to scramble the most highly-trained pursuit officers to take over. They are in the minority, however, and the figure that represents rank and file officers, the Police Federation, has said a reduction in specific road policing officers nationally has led criminals to think they can get away.
With fewer specialists on the roads, more pursues will be allocated to officers who don’t have the daily practice of high-speed pursuits.
The details of what happened in Penge are still not clear. But this crash shows once again how devastating the consequences of police pursues can be.
Police watchdog the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) has sent investigators to the scene, and appealed for witnesses to contact them.
Over the last ten years, two hundred fifty two members of the public have died following road traffic incidents involving the police in England and Wales, according to the IPCC.
In London there were four hundred ninety eight crashes involving a pursuit by Met officers in 2015-16.