HAYLEY COP BLACK BOX WAS FAULTY; No data stored from crash car.

Byline: BY JEREMY ARMSTRONG

THE black box recorder in a police car which knocked down and killed a teenager was not working at the time of the crash, it emerged yesterday.

Hayley Adamson, 16, died late on May 19 in Scotswood, Newcastle.

Since then the Independent Police Complaints Commission has been probing the accident.

But friends of Hayley, of Denton, whose funeral took place on Friday, are becoming frustrated with the length of the investigation.

IPCC investigators should have been able to download details from the car almost immediately. Black box recorders freeze on impact, storing information on the minutes before a collision, including speed and whether warning lights and sirens were activated.

But in this case the recorder and its backup memory, had not stored any data at all.

IPCC spokesman Ian Christon said: "It is a piece of electrical equipment, and can go wrong. Nothing is 100 per cent fool-proof."

Investigators are now compiling their report from eye-witness accounts, with expert analysis used to determine the speed the car was travelling.

The officer driving was alone, but a second car arrived within a minute.

Mr Christon added: "We can use markings on the road to determine the speed. There were many witnesses. We are not just reliant on the officer driving the car."

CAPTION(S):

VICTIM Hayley Adamson

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Publication:	The Mirror (London, England)
Date:	Jun 12, 2008
Words:	220
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