17 year-old Ronaldo Johnson died on 6 April 2021 following a road traffic collision in which he was a rear passenger during a high speed pursuit by Greater Manchester Police in the early hours of 31 March 2021. Dash cam footage seen by the Family shows that the pursuing officer PC Oram initially pursued the driver of the vehicle on foot for a period of at least 25 minutes before attending to the victims of the crash and calling for an ambulance. The Inquest will be heard before HM Assistant Coroner
Nick Stanage at the Manchester City Coroner’s Court for half a day at 10am on Tuesday 26 March 2024.
Tragically, Ronaldo’s death is one of many police pursuit-related deaths. From September 2020 at least 8 people (including Ronaldo) have died following pursuits by GMP officers 5 of whom were aged 18 and under. Statistics published by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (‘IOPC’) for 2021/22 indicate that GMP was involved in the highest number of road traffic deaths of all of the authorities across England & Wales with a total number of 7 deaths that year (5 of which were pursuit-related). This is why the Family are part of a campaign to End Police Pursuits.
Despite submissions made on behalf of the Family about the seriousness of this issue, the Inquest was only listed for half a day at the Coroner’s Court. The Family are disappointed that the Inquest will take a limited form in which it will only hear from the pursuing GMP officer PC Stuart Oram and survivability expert Mr Nigel Zoltie. They nevertheless hope that they will finally obtain answers to at least some of the very many questions they have been asking for almost 3 years since Ronaldo’s death.
The Family are represented by Christian Weaver of Garden Court North Chambers and Emma Gilbert of Imran Khan and Partners Solicitors.
The Family are supported by a number of organisations including INQUEST, Northern Police Monitoring Project (‘NPMP’), and Brake, the Road Safety Charity who will all be in attendance at the Inquest.
NOTE TO EDITORS
Please do not hesitate to contact Ms Emma Gilbert of Imran Khan and Partners Solicitors at EmmaG@ikpsolicitors.com or 020 7404 3004 if you have any questions.