Police widow welcomes BMW decision to stop supplying cars to UK forces

But Kathryn Dumphreys said it was an action “that should have been taken years ago”.

PC Dumphreys, 47 suffered fatal injuries when his car – a BMW 330 – veered across the motorway and crashed near Carlisle on the afternoon of January 26, 2020.

An inquest last month heard that the BMW N57 engine in the cars that the Cumbria Constabulary officer and many of his colleagues across the country were driving had a litany of faults – for a four-year period, the vehicles’ N57 engine was failing five to seven times a month in police cars, more than 200 occurrences.

The inquest heard that according to experts the car’s engine was “not fit and safe for high performance use by the police” on the day PC Dumphreys’ accident happened.

The inquest in Carlisle heard that at the time of the tragedy, the officer was responding to an emergency call for back-up and that he did nothing to contribute to the accident.

Following the fatal crash, a forensic examination of the BMW’s N57 engine revealed that a displaced crankshaft caused an obstruction of the oil-supply line. The result was a loss of oil, which was spread across the engine floor and, with the crankshaft continuing to rotate, this ultimately caused combustible parts of the engine to ignite.

The inquest heard that from 2014 to 2017, five to seven crankshaft bearing failures had occurred in each month in UK police vehicles. Coroner Robert Cohen described this as a “startlingly high failure rate”.

Ms Dumphreys said: “Although it is too little too late for Nick and our family, BMW’s decision to stop supplying cars to UK police forces with immediate effect is the first step in the right direction.

“It is glaringly obvious that these cars were not, and in my view are still not fit or safe for UK policing purposes.

“This is finally the correct decision and given that BMW were fully aware of the risks in the years prior to Nick’s death – as the inquest into his death heard – it is the action that should have been taken years ago.

“As we heard during the inquest, the rate of the engine failures in these BMWs (between five and seven a month from 2014 to 2017) was described by the independent engineering expert as ‘extraordinary’ and by the coroner as ‘startling’.”

She added: “I firmly believe that had these cars been withdrawn from UK policing years ago – as they should have been – Nick would still be alive.

“I am relieved that the safety of our officers and the public is finally being taken seriously.

“The spotlight is now firmly upon all UK police forces to prioritise safety and take immediate action to stop using all BMW cars.

“The National Police Chiefs’ Council know the facts, so why do they still require our officers to drive these cars – which have proved to be dangerous – nearly three years after Nick’s death? It is appalling and insulting.”