"There Are Lessons To Be Learned... And We Are Learning Them"

Jersey's Chief of Police says there are lessons to be learned from the investigation into the death of Aaron Banks in 2019 - and they are learning them.

An inquest into the 18-year-old's death heard that many of the original statements from key witnesses lacked detail, including from the driver of a yellow car that passed Aaron's vehicle just before the fatal incident.

There was also criticism that one statement wasn't signed and a 999 call wasn't retained.

The force has offered its sincere apologies and condolences to the family.

"Of course, there were a number of issues with the first investigation that was conducted in 2019 and as you have heard, the subsequent crash investigator apologising for the first investigation which of course he didn't do, but it was right and proper and that's what I would expect from States of Jersey Police and my colleagues is if we think we should have done better, we will say.

There was a poor initial investigation which could have been done much better.

Of course, road traffic collisions to investigate are very difficult because there's a lot of technology involved as well, so back in November, we provided additional road traffic collision training to what we call our road traffic collision SIOs, they are the Senior Investigating Officer's of which Inspector Turnbull is one and was at the inquest.

That was delivered by someone who is a former Head of Roads Policing in England and he provided a course which was to a national standard and we've increased the number of our trained SIOs, as I've described, by three more."

Aaron suffered severe head injuries after his car hit a wall in St Peter's Valley, flipped on its side and slid along the road into an oncoming vehicle.

The inquest could not conclude the reason why Aaron's car hit the wall.

Inspector David Turnbull, who took over the investigation in 2021 after concerns raised by the Banks family, admitted that the original statements taken by the previous officer in charge were not at the standard he would have expected.

"When we don't reach the standard I would expect, then we are transparent, we explain why that was and we look for lessons to learn.

But of course, we also do great stuff and it isn't that long ago that there were some very notable cases in the Royal Court.

We want to get every one right, we strive to get every one right, but the men and women of the States of Jersey Police do a fantastic job." - Robin Smith, Chief of Police.