A car firm which was urged by a coroner to examine the electronic transmission of one of its vehicles after the tragic death of a young boy has said the car meets “all legal requirements” and “no changes” were required.
Plymouth Coroner Deborah Archer issued a Prevention of Future Deaths report last year at the conclusion of an inquest into the death of seven-year-old Alfie Tollett who lost his life on February 19, 2023.
Alfie was at Plymstock Albion Oaks RFC in Plymouth for one of his brothers’ rugby games when he found himself trapped between his family’s parked car and a van, after a Jaguar I-PACE driver mistakenly pressed the wrong button in an attempt to reverse. The driver of the SUV “relied on feel” to locate the reverse function but inadvertently accelerated forwards for roughly 10 seconds, driving the vehicle into Alfie.
Despite Alfie’s father’s swift attempts to move the family car forward to free his son, the boy tragically passed away shortly afterwards. The post-mortem examination determined that blunt force traumatic chest injuries were the cause of Alfie’s untimely death.
Ms Archer’s report acknowledged the driver’s “number of errors” – which included putting the car in drive rather than reverse; failing to look down at the camera and pressing the button to move forward by touch alone; failing to realise that the reversing warning sound which was said to be very difficult to hear inside the car was not engaged; driving forward and continuing to do so for eight to ten seconds after the accelerator was pressed and failing to press the brake at any time.
However, she also highlighted a potential issue with the design of the car’s electric transmission, explaining: “These errors occurred as a result of there being no intermediary step within the Jaguar I-Pace being necessary to put the car into drive/reverse other than pressing a button.
“In the police officer’s opinion, if there had also been a lever or something similar present in the vehicle that needed to be engaged before a button was pressed, this may have alerted [the driver] to the fact that he had pushed the incorrect button on the three button console.”
In the Prevention of Future Deaths report, she told Jaguar Land Rover, “In my opinion, action should be taken to prevent future deaths, and I believe you have the power to take such action.”
In its lengthy and detailed response, posted on the Courts and Tribunals Judiciary website, Jaguar expressed their “deepest sympathies” to Alfie’s family and friends and noted the findings by the coroner at the inquest, held in Exeter.
The firm noted that they carried out a full download of the Telematics data control unit of the I-Pace and were “preparing a technical report to assist the police but this was not progressed due to [the driver’s] death”. This followed the observation by the coroner that there had been “no prosecution of the driver as he died of natural causes shortly after this incident”.
The firm noted that the Jaguar I-Pace had “achieved the highest safety rating of five stars from the European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP)” and other manufacturers used a “similar type of gear selector across many marques and models” including Aston Martin, McLaren, Lotus, Renault, Ford, Tesla and Hyundai. It said each button in the gear transmission was “clearly labelled” and used the same labelling as “any other automatic vehicle”
Jaguar Land Rover concluded: “Upon review of all information and evidence in the case, including the data extracted from the vehicle and independent vehicle safety testing, it is clear that the current design of the Jaguar I-Pace gear transmission control unity and alert strategy meet all legal requirements for vehicle safety and that no changes are required.”
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