18 months after a Land Rover Defender crashed into a Wimbledon prep school, killing two eight-year-old girls, the case has been reopened. The families of Selena Lau and Nuria Sajjad, who died in the crash, have long been searching for answers, expressing dissatisfaction with the initial investigation that cleared the driver, Claire Freemantle, of charges.
Nestling on the edge of south-west London, Wimbledon Common has long been a haven for those seeking respite from the stresses and strains of life in the city.
The events of this week are just the latest twist in a tortuous ongoing ordeal for the families of the little girls who died. Selena Lau, 8, died at the scene when a Land Rover Defender crashed into her prep school in July 2023 as she enjoyed an end-of-term family tea party The Crown Prosecution Service said: 'In reaching this decision we have considered the driver's full medical records, obtained by police, and received evidence from neurological specialists, who agreed that the driver had a seizure and that this was the first such medical episode she had experienced.'
Selena and Nuria's families said they remained 'unconvinced' that the investigation had been conducted thoroughly – in part because it seemed several key witnesses had not been interviewed. An internal police review led to the case being reopened last October, and the Metropolitan Police placed one of their most experienced officers in charge.
Why, given the extent of this almost unthinkable tragedy, which made headline news across the world, was it initially left to the Met's Roads and Transport Policing Command, a unit jointly funded by Transport for London , to investigate the incident? 'If I was a parent, I would expect that. I can't understand why the initial police investigation was closed so quickly.'
Meanwhile, Nuria, watched by her parents, played the recorder and read out a list of her hopes for the forthcoming summer holiday. Pupils and their parents then went outside into the sunshine for refreshments, unaware of the horror about to unfold. But then came a deafening silence about the investigation, which the families of Nuria and Selena said had left them living in 'horror'.
'The longer it goes on, the more suspicious it gets in our minds, because we're always thinking: 'Why? Why is it taking so long?' ' Incredibly, he blamed a backlog of road-death accidents – the force investigates around 100 fatal collisions a year, and these are dealt with in turn – as well as a lack of accredited professionals to analyse them.
After the announcement, Selena and Nuria's families and the school held meetings with the Met on three different occasions to raise questions about the investigation. Det Supt Basford made a fresh appeal for witnesses on Tuesday, saying he 'believed there were people in the local area who have not been spoken to by police and remain unidentified'.
TRAFFIC ACCIDENT CRASH INVESTIGATION LEGAL PROCEEDINGS FAMILY GRIEF
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