999 call over Metro death 'not protocol'

The Midland Metro driver whose tram struck a Wolverhampton police worker did not call for an ambulance because it was against "procedure", an inquest heard.

Sherman Porter initially thought he had struck a sand bag but when he got out to investigate saw it was a body.

The victim was Cheryl Flanagan who was struck by the tram at Bilston's Crescent stop at around 11pm on December 12, 2003. Mr Porter was asked by the Flanagan family's barrister why he did not call for an ambulance once he realised what had happened.

He said: "The procedure is that the first port of call is to radio to control."

He said he did not know if his control room would have called 999, adding: "I don't remember if I suggested it to them to call an ambulance."

Mr Porter told the inquest yesterday that he believed 30-year-old Miss Flanagan was dead straight away when he saw her body because of the positioning of her body and that fact her eyes were not moving.

It also emerged yesterday that Mr Porter raised concerns over the initial police response to the death of Miss Flanagan, who lived with parents George and Val at Greencroft, Bilston and worked as a data handler at Bilston Street police station.

In a statement Mr Porter made at the time, which was read to the jury at Worcestershire Coroner's Court in Stourport-on-Severn yesterday, he said: "The police were dragging their feet".

Mr Porter rejected concerns raised by Miss Flanagan's family's barrister, Mr Stephen Campbell, that he may have been talking to conductor Gurdev Singh Khera before his Birmingham-bound tram struck Miss Flanagan.

The court heard there were also concerns from Midland Metro staff that the two may have been together, as Mr Khera had told them: "We didn't see her".

Mr Campbell suggested the fact that he said "we" and not "I" may have indicated that the driver and conductor were talking while the tram was moving, in breach of company policy.

Mr Khera said: "It was a figure of speech. I didn't talk to him at all."

David Beale, who was one of the seven or eight passengers on the tram, told the jury that he had not seen the two staff chatting.

The inquest continues.