- 13 hours ago
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00:00This person has lost their life for whatever reason.
00:04We're here trying to establish why.
00:09Only now can I realise that that is actually in the middle of my lane.
00:13Tracking down the evidence.
00:15This is really important, this is key.
00:16To get to the truce.
00:18Once we've got somebody, that's going to put him in the driver's seat.
00:22There's a death on the road.
00:23So we've got to be investigated properly and thoroughly.
00:26This is a proper head scratcher, this is.
00:28All in a day's work, for the crash detectives.
00:43Police emergency.
00:46It's a road traffic accident.
00:50Two cars involved.
00:53One guy looks as if he's seriously injured.
00:58He came out of the car and he's, er, I think he may be dead.
01:11Just give us a bit of space.
01:14Yeah, just one more.
01:16He's going to put his mask on you a minute, fella, all right?
01:18Are you a witness, sir?
01:24I was in the car.
01:25You were in this car?
01:26I was in the car, I was in the car.
01:27You were in this car?
01:28Yeah.
01:28I was in the passenger.
01:29I was in the car, I was in the car, I was in the car, I didn't know who you were driving.
01:40That lady there, Sunday, the puffer jacket, did run that direction, which would tend to judge you the driver.
01:46As questions are mounting over the whereabouts of the driver, critical care doctors are now on scene.
01:54There's one in there.
01:56Two of them, yeah?
01:56Yeah.
01:57Yeah.
01:57Yeah.
01:59He's been ejected on impact.
02:00A 22-year-old man and a 21-year-old woman have been seriously injured.
02:09As they're taken to hospital, investigative work at the scene of this crash can now begin.
02:21Initially, it would appear that the Citroen has been travelling this direction towards Newport.
02:29And the other vehicle, the Polo.
02:30It's been travelling in the opposite direction.
02:34They're now looking for evidence of how the two cars have collided.
02:40I was expecting damage from, like, front corner, corner to corner, but there isn't.
02:45It's just avoided the front of it and has actually struck it just in line with the A-pillar.
02:50So it must have been slightly sideways to be able to do that.
02:55While this damage can be explained by the impact with the Citroen,
03:00it's proving more difficult to understand what's happened to the other side of the car.
03:05I don't know if Fy Brigade done that.
03:12We had one passenger who's ejected, who's landed here,
03:16and the other rear-seat passenger's still inside,
03:19so I don't think Fyre would have needed to do anything.
03:21This is a proper head-scratcher, this is.
03:32The man, thought to be at the wheel of the Polo, has fled the scene,
03:37while the driver of the Citroen C3 has minor injuries, despite this impact.
03:44The drive shaft there, it's pulling the drive shaft out of that wheel.
03:48Yeah.
03:49That connects the gearbox to the wheels.
03:53That bit there...
03:55..was connected to that.
03:59To cause damage like this...
04:03..requires huge force.
04:08Is it in gear or is it neutral?
04:09It's in neutral, and brakes on.
04:10There's no airbag deployment,
04:15so it's either been stationary or very...
04:18Very, very slow.
04:19..slow moving.
04:21And I think that just...
04:22If you sit it...
04:27Come on, there you go.
04:37Look towards me.
04:39See that? See that?
04:39Hang on, stop, stand by, stand by, stand by.
04:41Yep, I can see it, yep.
04:46Yeah.
04:50It would appear to be a loaded tyre mark.
04:55That's it.
04:56That's just popped out of nowhere, hasn't it?
04:57I know, it's mad, isn't it?
04:59The temperature's changing, probably.
05:00So, this will be the front offside tyre,
05:06and as he's come through here,
05:08that's the wheel that's been loaded,
05:11and it's made this mark.
05:13It basically starts to show
05:15where the vehicle
05:17is starting to lose control.
05:20This means they can now start to track the path
05:24of the VW Polo
05:26further into the scene.
05:29Give it another 12, maybe
05:30nine, 12 inches,
05:33and that stops.
05:34Doosh!
05:35Give or take.
05:36I reckon about...
05:38There.
05:39Yeah.
05:40So, that's...
05:41I reckon that's probably point of contact.
05:43But then that leads...
05:44Do-do-do-do-do.
05:47Have we got anything on the kerb?
05:49That's what I'm thinking.
05:56Well, that's where he's mounted the kerb, isn't he?
05:58Yeah.
06:02He must have had a good amount of momentum still
06:05to carry him through to there.
06:06If you look at the mark-off up this way,
06:13that black stripe at the edge of the yellow markers,
06:17that's the tyre.
06:19And a little bit further on,
06:21it turns into a gouge on the pavement.
06:27The tyre's probably burst at that point.
06:30It's sitting on the rim,
06:31so it's only the rim
06:31that's pushing it down into the ground,
06:33so that's why we've got that nice, thin mark.
06:36It's just where this gouge mark
06:44gets close to the wall.
06:48You can see white paint transferred over,
06:53and you can see bits of the rear light cluster
06:56where he's just sideswiped this wall.
06:59So at this point,
07:03the car is sort of more and more sideways
07:06as it moves towards that lamppost.
07:14Now, I think this is lamppost.
07:17I think he's just glanced at it.
07:21But because it struck it at the B pillar,
07:24which is where, obviously, the rear door is mounted,
07:27it's basically just ripped the door open.
07:29That door's caught on here.
07:41Yeah.
07:42Pushed it back,
07:44so it'll come round here.
07:46Yeah.
07:46It's pirouetted, Ragnan.
07:48It's been airborne.
07:49The point at which the front then has then hit the floor is here.
07:53Then it's just dragged the alloy to there.
07:54You know, we haven't necessarily got an idea of speed yet,
08:03but when you consider just how much it's moved the lamppost,
08:08it would appear to be fairly high.
08:13As it's flung round,
08:15the pivot will have just ejected the passenger.
08:20Because I'm guessing, yeah, they didn't have the belt on.
08:24While the man lay seriously injured on the road,
08:36the driver chose to run away.
08:42And at the scene of the crash,
08:44witnesses told police that they'd seen him making his escape.
08:48We're quite happy that the driver has gone that way,
08:51the witnesses in the car behind.
08:52Yeah, he said that.
08:52He said that he's got out of the car and run down towards the curb.
09:00Sarge?
09:02I think this is CTTV.
09:04Yeah, I think that is the potential suspect.
09:19I'm going to have a minute.
09:21Did you get the description from the CTTV?
09:23It looks like black shoes,
09:25light blue body to a jacket with a navy blue hat.
09:28Yeah, I think it was four people in the car.
09:35Obviously, the driver's run off,
09:37gone down, we think, into Ringland.
09:40We've captured him on CCTV a couple of times.
09:43Then a black Audi has picked him up.
09:46From that footage,
09:47we've then been able to compare that to
09:49vehicles we've got on our database.
09:52Can you do a check on that
10:17to see who it comes back to
10:18and then do associate checks for that person
10:21to see if any of the people who are in the car
10:24associates of those individuals, yeah.
10:27As inquiries gain pace,
10:30so does analysis of the evidence at the scene.
10:33It shows our vehicle is on the incorrect side of the road
10:36for the direction he was travelling.
10:39Starting to suggest that our VW driver
10:43is the one that's at fault in this collision.
10:46And while they don't have the suspected driver,
10:53what they do have is the car.
10:56It's now been recovered from the scene
10:58to a secure compound.
11:02There's obviously a question over who the driver was.
11:05So what we need is forensic evidence,
11:08DNA, fingerprints, that sort of thing.
11:11Once we've got somebody,
11:13this is what's going to say
11:14that was the person in the car driving
11:17at the time of the collision.
11:18That's going to put him in the driver's seat.
11:19But there's more in this car
11:23that could link the driver to the collision.
11:27Car, the map.
11:29But they'll need to move fast.
11:32There's obviously sections of glass.
11:35Yeah.
11:35So if we do identify a suspect,
11:38if we can identify what clothing they were wearing,
11:40along with their trainers,
11:41because potentially there could be,
11:43there's fragments of glass everywhere,
11:45so there could be a section
11:46or a fragment of that glass
11:48that's embedded within their footwear
11:49or within their trainer
11:51that they might not know about.
11:53So their footwear is quite important.
11:54Now you've mentioned that,
11:55because I know they're actively looking for him now, aren't they?
12:01Hi, Matt.
12:02Hi, Sarge, all right?
12:03You free to speak in a minute?
12:04Yeah, go on, mate.
12:06It's likely to be beneficial from the inquiry
12:08to seize the clothing and his footwear
12:11for comparisons to glass,
12:14because there is glass samples
12:16on the seat and in the footwell.
12:20Yes, that's pretty common, mate.
12:21Nice one.
12:22Yeah, no problem.
12:26And the forensic opportunities don't end there.
12:31There's obviously clearly A-bag that has been deployed.
12:36So there's a good chance
12:37that a suspect has contacted
12:39one of these A-bags here,
12:41and they could have potentially DNA or saliva on it.
12:44Because there's one thing being in a car,
12:47there's another thing being in during a collision
12:49when the airbags are deployed.
12:50Exactly.
12:54At the same time the airbags were fired,
12:58another safety feature was also activated.
13:00This seatbelt has been pulled tight there.
13:04The car's sensed the collision.
13:06So there's good evidence
13:07that that seatbelt wasn't worn
13:09at the time of the collision.
13:12But it's a different story
13:13for those travelling in the front.
13:15There you go.
13:19Oh, nice.
13:20Yeah.
13:21See the abrasion there?
13:23It's a very indicative mark
13:24to see that the time of impact was being worn.
13:28Look at that.
13:29Oh, wow.
13:29It's like a two-stage.
13:30Got a lovely one on there as well.
13:32Yeah.
13:32And this could also link the driver to the crash.
13:38Well, bruising can go on for weeks,
13:40especially this type of dramatic bruising.
13:43Sometimes the longer it's left,
13:45the more it sort of develops.
13:47Yeah.
13:48So I think once you do identify a suspect,
13:51we should be looking at, you know,
13:53definitely having a look at his body
13:55to see if it's consistent
13:56with your findings with the seatbelt.
13:58Yeah.
13:59Because it's definitely been worn.
14:01Yeah.
14:01At the point at which that pyrotechnics,
14:03that pretension is fired,
14:05it's definitely been on.
14:06Yeah.
14:08But for any of these to be of use,
14:11there's now an urgency
14:12to find the man who was at the wheel.
14:15We're not just looking necessarily
14:17for footage from after the incident.
14:21We also want to know
14:23what he's been doing earlier in the day.
14:24And in the hours before the collision,
14:29the car has been traced back to a pub.
14:33The white VW Polo can be seen on CCTV.
14:40That would have been one of the last pieces of footage
14:42of that car prior to the collision.
14:47But it wasn't just the car
14:49that was recorded on camera.
14:51Captured just half an hour before leaving,
14:58the occupants can be seen enjoying a drink.
15:05But one of the men stood out.
15:10You can see a male in the same dark blue
15:13and light blue puffer jacket.
15:14The response officers looked at that footage.
15:26And realised they'd dealt with him before.
15:31From the CCTV footage in the pub,
15:33they particularly remembered a hand tattoo that he has
15:36and a chunky silver bracelet that he normally wears.
15:42They now knew exactly who they were looking for.
15:47This is a man who appears to have run from the scene,
15:51leaving the people who presumably he knew
15:54with very, very serious injuries.
15:56But questions still remain about the part he had to play
16:03in this collision.
16:07Because the airbags have been deployed,
16:09because the seatbelt pretensioners have been activated,
16:12we know that probably that car's stored some data
16:16about what happened in the five seconds
16:18leading up to that collision.
16:19So they've used a specialist system
16:22to access the electronics of the polo.
16:27And that looks really good.
16:30It's now produced a snapshot of information
16:33listed in half-second intervals.
16:39So we can see from this,
16:42the accelerator pedal going from 20%, 24, 64 and 100%,
16:47and that's flat to the floor at that point.
16:49It's data that links directly
16:51to what the person is doing to the controls of the car
16:54and it tells us exactly what their manner of driving was
16:56prior to the collision.
17:00He's doing 68 miles per hour there.
17:04The speed limit is 30 miles an hour.
17:07He's also putting left-hand steering input in.
17:11So he's almost at 90 degrees, isn't it?
17:1888 degrees.
17:19So he's kind of at this point
17:20with the accelerator planted as hard as it will go
17:23and the car is still accelerating.
17:26And this is, what, four seconds prior to impact?
17:29Yeah.
17:29Yeah.
17:34So it goes from that point, roughly...
17:38Yeah.
17:38..to back to zero.
17:40That's quite a harsh...
17:41But still accelerating three and a half seconds beforehand
17:44and then back and then...
17:47Round to the right.
17:48Round to the right by almost the same amount.
17:53He's gone on from there to there in a second,
17:57but it's still accelerating at 100%.
17:59And then another half a second,
18:01he's back to leftward steering.
18:03So he's back to here, roughly, maybe at that sort of angle.
18:08By reading the data,
18:09you can almost see the panic in the driver
18:11trying to gain control back again
18:13and clearly failed.
18:20With two of his passengers now paying the price
18:23of this erratic driving,
18:25he has some serious questions to answer.
18:27But despite efforts to track him down,
18:33he continued to evade police.
18:36W.O. calling Fox, your Echo 3-1.
18:39Until they finally had a breakthrough.
18:43Fox, Echo 3-1.
18:45Are you able to assist local units, please,
18:47in Newport for assistance to gain entry?
18:49Yeah.
18:49They've had a tip-off
18:51that the man they're searching for is hiding
18:54at a top-floor flat in the city centre.
18:57There's quite a few officers out there at the moment.
18:59They're looking for a Jamie Chalice.
19:05Ask an officer to we can do.
19:06Go ahead.
19:08Got a Jamie Chalice in test.
19:11Nice one, right there.
19:12PHONE RINGS
19:14Jamie, are you responsible for driving a motor vehicle
19:25when he was involved in a crash on Christchurch Road?
19:28I think at this point I'll read out the prepared statement
19:30on behalf of Jamie.
19:31Yeah, go ahead.
19:32Yeah, for the purposes of the tape.
19:34I, Jamie Chalice, will say as follows.
19:36The 24-year-old man admits he was travelling in the car
19:40at the time of the crash
19:41and that he ran away from the scene.
19:44But he's denying that he was the driver.
19:51Explain to me as best you can
19:53how the collision between the VW Polo
19:56that you were travelling in
19:58and the Citroen C3, how did it happen?
20:00No coin.
20:03So if he's adding no detail,
20:06they'll need to rely on other ways
20:08to piece together exactly how this collision unfolded.
20:14On the evening of the crash,
20:19the team used a laser scanner
20:21to capture an accurate record of the scene.
20:25So we've got this scale plan view
20:28of the scene from above, essentially.
20:31So this is the plan without anything on it.
20:36So the direction of travel is this.
20:39And it's now been combined with the electronic evidence
20:43taken from the VW Polo.
20:45This is the Citroen here.
20:49The lamp post is here
20:51and this is the Polo at its point of rest.
20:55So that data's allowed me to essentially plot
20:59all of the actions taken by the driver on a map.
21:03This particular section of road is 30 miles an hour
21:08and you can see 68, 67, 70 miles an hour at this point.
21:13This top speed of 70 miles per hour
21:16was recorded just two seconds
21:19before the Polo hit the Citroen.
21:21And its driver is now a key witness.
21:29We have a statement.
21:30He says,
21:31I first noticed the VW Polo
21:33on the apex of the bend.
21:37The vehicle appeared to be travelling at high speed.
21:40It's difficult to actually document
21:42an exact speed from what I saw.
21:45I was very frightened for my own safety.
21:48I was in the path of the VW Polo
21:50which appeared to be flying towards me.
21:55I didn't really have anywhere to go
21:57so I stopped my vehicle
21:58and tucked in as far as possible to the side
22:00to try and keep myself safe.
22:05He's steering really sharply
22:07so 72 degrees to the left
22:09so that's probably about that sort of position.
22:12This fits with the position
22:14of this loaded tyre mark
22:16just prior to impact with the Citroen
22:18that we saw at the scene.
22:21The VW Polo then hit my vehicle
22:23which was stationary at this point.
22:28All the way through this
22:30the accelerator's pinned to the floor
22:32this is the point where he decides
22:33OK, I'm going to take my foot off the accelerator.
22:37So within the same half a second
22:38is when he decides to put the brake on
22:40which is the point of impact with the Citroen.
22:44he's now travelling back to the near side of the road
22:53and at this point
22:56the data shows us that he's put in
22:59a sudden right steering event
23:01106 degrees
23:04which is quite a large rightward steering input
23:08and at this point he's still travelling
23:09at 43 miles an hour.
23:10The back of the car is sort of swinging around
23:17until he makes contact with that lamppost.
23:23As the car then swung around
23:25into its final position
23:27allowed the unseat belted rear seat passengers
23:31to be thrown around
23:33and to actually come out of the car.
23:36The electronic data is consistent
23:38with the evidence found at the scene.
23:43But it's also allowed Cath
23:45to track the road positioning of the Polo
23:47in the lead up to the crash.
23:50So this red line here
23:51is where that car would have been
23:54as it's come through that collision sequence.
24:00But where the data recording ends
24:03the witness accounts continue.
24:09The driver emerged a couple of seconds
24:11after the car had come to a stop.
24:13I saw him get out of the driver's door
24:15of the VW Polo.
24:17I recall him walking around the car
24:19and looking at the male passenger
24:20who had fallen out of the vehicle.
24:25He didn't appear to check on him.
24:28He looked at him very briefly
24:29and then I heard him say,
24:31I gotta go.
24:38Did you say that
24:39and then run off?
24:40No problem.
24:42Still sticking with his version of events
24:45and denying being at the wheel.
24:49We still need to,
24:51by some method or other,
24:53put him in the driver's seat
24:54if that's where he was.
24:57The very last forensic opportunity
24:59available to us was DNA.
25:07With the driver's curtain airbag
25:09only deploying at the time of the crash,
25:12it's now crucial to this investigation.
25:15That's really significant.
25:18It's very unlikely
25:19that any other person
25:20would have touched that airbag
25:22at the point of the collision.
25:24So what we needed to do
25:26is compare the DNA on the airbag
25:28to the DNA of the person
25:30that we believed to be the driver.
25:35But as they waited for the results,
25:38it emerged that this wasn't
25:41the only serious offence
25:42that he was wanted for.
25:45He was suspected to be linked
25:50to a number of other offences,
25:52particularly an aggravated burglary
25:55along with a number of other people.
25:58They had been wearing balaclavas
26:00when they'd broken into a house.
26:02They'd threatened the occupants
26:04with knives and they'd demanded money.
26:05But the gang was captured on CCTV.
26:13Footage showed one of the burglars
26:15taking off his balaclava
26:16and discarding it
26:17at the side of the road.
26:20That was then seized
26:22and tested for DNA.
26:27There were now two pieces of evidence
26:32with the potential to link him to crimes.
26:38That comparison was done.
26:43Both of those matched back to our driver.
26:45Now clearly at the wheel,
26:50at the time of the crash,
26:52there was no running away
26:53from the reality of his actions.
26:57The manner of driving that we can see,
26:59not only from the collision,
27:00but the data that we've got,
27:02describes a person
27:04who has been absolutely reckless
27:07towards the safety
27:09of the people in the car,
27:11the people who might have been
27:13sharing the road with him.
27:16The man he left lying on the road
27:19after being thrown from the car
27:20went on to make a recovery.
27:24But the woman was left
27:26with life-changing injuries.
27:30Given the speeds,
27:32given the harshness of acceleration,
27:34the harshness of steering,
27:36I'm not surprised that he wasn't able
27:38to maintain control
27:39through that section of road.
27:41The driver admitted
27:42causing serious injury
27:44by dangerous driving,
27:46as well as aggravated burglary.
27:49He also pleaded guilty
27:50to driving whilst disqualified,
27:53dangerous driving,
27:55and possession of drugs
27:56with intent to supply.
27:59He was jailed for almost 20 years.
28:04It was science that's allowed us
28:06to bring this offender to justice
28:08and taking a dangerous offender
28:11off the streets.
28:12to giveayo'aret,
28:15for the sake of Ziplocin,
28:16for the sake of ediyor
28:17is that the death word
28:18is legitimate.
28:19The mission of Eddie
28:19creates that
28:20a adverse effects
28:21against a very dangerous
28:21and dangerous
28:22and damaging
28:23through the ways
28:24of Даже
28:38or probe
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