Police Investigating 'At Highest Level' As Reports Of Two Incidents Near Harry Dunn RAF Base Emerge

A family spokesperson said footage of a near-miss close to RAF Croughton had "sent shivers down my spine and made me feel sick."
|

Footage of a vehicle on the wrong side of the road near an RAF base has prompted urgent discussions in light of the death of Harry Dunn in a separate incident nearby.

The video of the near miss near RAF Croughton emerged as police revealed details of a separate incident in which a police vehicle was struck by a car being driven on the wrong side of the road in October.

The video, reported to Northamptonshire Police on Saturday, shows a blue BMW having to brake sharply on a country road near the base.

A force spokesman said chief constable Nick Adderley had personally taken control of the incident “in light of the ongoing investigation in Northamptonshire”.

RAF Croughton became the focus of an international controversy after Dunn was killed in a head-on collision with a car yards away on August 27 last year.

Anne Sacoolas, 42, the wife of a US intelligence official, claimed diplomatic immunity after the collision and was able to return to her home country.

The US State Department said a UK extradition request for Sacoolas was highly inappropriate and would be an abuse.

Before reports of the latest incident surfaced, business secretary Andrea Leadsom, the constituency MP for Dunn’s family, wrote to the commander of the base to ask for an invitation to visit.

Dunn’s parents Charlotte Charles and Tim Dunn are looking for assurances that safety measures are in place to make sure there are no similar incidents in the future.

Confirming the force had been given the footage, a spokesman said: “We can confirm we have received a report of this incident.

“It falls in the Thames Valley area, but the Chief Constable (of Northamptonshire Police) has seen the footage.

“The incident is currently being discussed at the highest level in light of the ongoing investigation in Northamptonshire.”

In a statement published to Twitter, Northamptonshire Police’s chief constable Nick Adderley said the force had been made aware of the incident, and also said he had been made aware of another incident in Northampton in October, in which a police vehicle had been struck by a vehicle driving on the wrong side of the road. 

He wrote: “I want to be absolutely clear on the fact that these incidents just cannot keep happening. We know all too well in the case of young Harry, just how devastating they can be. 

“Therefore, the PFCC and I have today requested a urgent meeting with the base commander at RAF Croughton to discuss safety on the roads around the base and I expect this meeting to take place next week.”

Discussing the footage that had been reported to police on Saturday, Dunn family spokesman Radd Seiger said: “Seeing this footage has sent shivers down my spine and made me feel sick. No harm done on this occasion fortunately but that is not the point.

“I have been urging everyone in authority to take the matter seriously, not only in terms of safety and how we can improve it in relation to helping American drivers adjust to the different side of the road, but also ensuring that no one who breaks the law coming off the base is allowed to hop on the next plane home and evade justice as Anne Sacoolas did.

“Enough is enough. This near miss brings both issues sharply into focus and I now call on the UK government to take immediate action to ensure the safety of their citizens living in and around these bases but also to make sure that never again will a so-called ‘diplomat’ be allowed to evade justice.”

He added that, as far as the family and their supporters were concerned, no one on the military bases has diplomatic immunity, and said he was in touch with Adderley and constituency MP Andrea Leadsom. 

“Preliminary discussions have already been held but Team Harry now expect these issues to be taken seriously and addressed now, and I call on the authorities to make a public statement to assure the nation that it will not be acceptable for the Americans to come over, injure us and just flee,” Seiger said.

“Harry’s parents want, more than anything else, for this to never happen to a family again, and I look forward to entering into talks with the authorities, on both sides of the Atlantic, to make it never does.”