Family's anger over fresh police blunder probe into fatal accident on Shropshire border
The family of a man killed by a drink-driver can see "no benefit" in police conducting an internal review into blunders made in the investigation.
Members of the family of Julian Waskiewicz, a 56-year-old killed when hit by a car while walking his dogs in Albrighton in 2014, said that any investigation into Staffordshire Police failures should be independent.
The review of the collision investigation found there was a series of errors in how two forces handled the incident, including the failure to carry out the drink-drive "back calculation" procedure, and poor communication between officers.
The matter was only referred by Staffordshire Police to the IPCC in June this year and the watchdog has now directed the force to carry out its own investigation into the claims by some of the victim's relatives.
Mr Waskiewicz was taken to hospital in a critical condition but died six days later. The driver of the car, a 63-year-old man from Shifnal, was not prosecuted for any offence. He had been drinking before the collision.
The accident happened on the Shropshire/Staffordshire border and officers from both Staffordshire and West Mercia forces arrived at the scene. But the subsequent inquiry described a series of blunders that hampered the investigation and prevented justice being done.
A statement from Mr Waskiewicz's relatives said: "We see no benefit in this stage unless we get something genuinely independent and that is not happening. Had the IPCC taken it up we would say this is progress."
They said they were disappointed by a meeting held last week with civilian staff from Staffordshire Police's professional standards unit.
"No officer associated with the investigation attended and there was no representation from West Mercia Police despite the fact that West Mercia officers took responsibility for the driver on the evening of the collision, failed to conduct the count back and made the decision to release him from custody without taking an initial account or checking with the senior investigating officer," the statement said.
"Our concerns have been interpreted by Staffordshire Police to be complaints yet they are still requesting us to list specific and detailed allegations against individual officers.
"This is despite the fact that we have still not been given full disclosure of police policies, procedures or documents relating to the initial investigation into Julian's death.
"We see this as a completely unnecessary re-working of material that we have provided on countless occasions previously."
IPCC spokesman Dylan Evans said the matter had been referred back to Staffordshire Police.
