Family handoutAn 81-year-old woman who died after she was hit on a road crossing by a police motorcyclist escorting the Duchess of Edinburgh through London suddenly “appeared almost from nowhere,” the rider has said.
Helen Holland died two weeks after she was hit on West Cromwell Road, west London, in May 2023.
Metropolitan Police officer PC Christopher Harrison, 68, denies causing death by careless driving.
The Old Bailey was told he had been riding at between 44 mph (70 kmph) and 58 mph (93 kmph) on the approach to a red light where Mrs Holland was crossing, but he told the Old Bailey he “did not see her in the footway at all on the approach”.
Two further outrider motorcycles ahead of him had gone through the crossing by the time PC Harrison arrived at the scene, with the rider ahead of him going through the lights just as they turned red.
In an interview with the Independent Office for Police Conduct watchdog, PC Harrison said he had “no vision of anyone approaching the crossing”.
“Then from nowhere someone has appeared. I could see that it looked like a collision was about to occur so I braked as hard as I could.
“I moved as much as I could to the left. This is all happening in double-quick time.”
The duchess left the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in King Charles Street just after 15:00 BST, and the outrider team has the job of keeping the convoy moving while assessing threat.
They are allowed to exceed the speed limit – in this case 30mph – go through red lights and drive on the wrong side of the road.
But these exceptions to the rules of the road must be done safely and with minimal risk to the public, the court heard.
PC Harrison said he believed his speed was “at a level that I thought took into consideration the hazards”.
Earlier, expert witness Johnathan Moody, Lancashire Police’s deputy chief training instructor, said PC Harrison’s actions were “not what I would expect a competent rider to do”.
He said: “The final sole motorcycle working bike, I would have expected him to have controlled that crossing by stopping at the red light.”
On whether PC Harrison was slowing down, Mr Moody said: “From the footage I have seen, it did not appear so, but it is difficult to work out speed.”
‘Drove straight into her’
Mrs Holland suffered a skull fracture, bruising to her arms, legs and body, as well as fractures to her lower legs.
A post-mortem examination gave the cause of death as complications from a severe head injury.
Prosecutor Michelle Heeley KC previously told the court: “Mrs Holland was entitled to be crossing then, Mr Harrison knew that the light for traffic, for him, was red, and so he should have taken care when driving through the red light.
“But he did not stop and he did not see Mrs Holland, which is why he drove straight into her.
“He should have seen her, he should have expected there to be pedestrians and thus modified his driving somehow, but he didn’t, and that is why the prosecution say he was driving carelessly at that point.”
The trial continues.
