Runway police van that killed Leeds granddad ‘had faulty handbrake’
Donald Bennett, 83, who was sitting eating an ice cream, suffered fatal injuries when he was dragged under the runaway vehicle shortly after PC Claire Bugler parked it.
She claimed she had left the handbrake on as she got out to attend a disturbance at Pudsey Park in June 2013.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdDavid Foster, a forensic collision expert for North Yorkshire Police, said in his opinion she had only applied the handbrake on the 6th or 7th notch instead of the highest 10th.
He told the inquest jury: “If the handbrake had been put up to number 10 then, in my view, the van would not have moved.”
But he added that he found corrosion on the brake components which would probably have affected the parking of the van.
He told Wakefield Coroner’s Court that the lower slider on the right hand rear brake of the police van had been corroded.
Advertisement