Fiona Lamdin,West of England home and social affairs correspondent, in Tauntonand
Dan Ayers,Somerset
Family handoutA 17-year-old who died on the M5 after removing her handcuffs and fleeing a stationary police car had tried to escape from vehicles before, a court has heard.
Tamzin Hall, from Wellington, was arrested after a disturbance at the children’s home where she lived in Taunton in November 2024.
She fled police while on the M5 and was fatally injured when she was hit by another car. The police watchdog previously said the car she was inside had stopped for safety reasons.
A pre-inquest hearing at Taunton Coroners’ Court earlier heard Tamzin, who had autism, had tried to escape from moving vehicles three times in the year before she died. A jury inquest into her death is scheduled for January 2027.
The inquest heard Somerset Council applied for a space in a secure home for Tamzin in 2022 but there was not one available.
The council said, as Tamzin was close to her 18th birthday, there was a complex balance around ensuring safety yet still preparing her for adulthood.
Ciara Bartlam, acting as the family’s barrister, told the hearing Tamzin regularly tried to escape from the children’s home.
She said if Tamzin had been in secure accommodation, the police would not have been called to support staff on the night of her death.
Bartlam said that, as an autistic child, Tamzin needed three adults to be with her.
A representative from Somerset Council told the inquest the order covering Tamzin meant she could be supported by up to three adults but it was a requirement of the order to impose the least restrictions possible.
At the time of her death, there were two police officers in the vehicle.
Avon and Somerset Police said it had referred the incident to the Independent Office for Police Conduct and could not speculate on the watchdog’s investigation.
In a statement released previously, Tamzin’s mother Amy Hall described her eldest daughter as her “best friend” and said her death had left their family “devastated”.
A representative for the Hall family said earlier that they were “keen to emphasise” that the driver involved was “not at fault at all” for Tamzin’s death.
