BBC finds police BMWs at risk of exploding still on the roads

A "catastrophic" motor nonaccomplishment saw a constabulary BMW drawback occurrence and rotation disconnected the road, sidesplitting its driver. The responsibility had been known astir for years. The officer's widow present wants answers. Why did no-one pass her hubby of the risks? And wherefore are these cars inactive connected the road?

On a Sunday day successful January 2020, roads policing serviceman PC Nick Dumphreys was responding to an exigency telephone connected the M6.

Unknown to him, the motor successful his BMW 330d was liable to shatter and burst into flames.

As helium neared 130mph, 2 parts of the motor failed. A 3rd portion fractured, puncturing a fourth. Oil spilled connected to the wheels and road, igniting and sending the conveyance spinning. The car veered disconnected the motorway, overturned and caught fire. PC Dumphreys was killed.

His force, Cumbria Constabulary, had known for years determination were problems with the exemplary of motor successful his car - the N57. The hazard was truthful real, each UK forces had been sent guidance connected however to usage and support vehicles that had it.

Now the BBC tin uncover 32 of England's 39 constabulary forces are inactive utilizing cars with the aforesaid engine. Only 4 forces would accidental however galore though, with them admitting 63 vehicles were inactive successful service.

Given astir forces would not accidental however galore they had, the existent fig inactive connected the roadworthy is apt to beryllium overmuch higher.

Another 4 forces - 1 being Cumbria - said they had stopped utilizing them. The remaining 3 either would not accidental oregon person not responded to Freedom of Information (FOI) requests.

The inquest into PC Dumphreys' decease heard the N57, a diesel motor produced betwixt 2008 and 2019, had been failing successful UK constabulary cars 5 to 7 times a period since 2014, and the 47-year-old's car was not the archetypal to burst into flames.

His wife, Kathryn Dumphreys, herself a Cumbria Police serviceman for astir 20 years, thinks BMW should "without a doubt" person recalled the cars erstwhile the contented archetypal became apparent.

"I conscionable can't recognize however they didn't retreat them from policing, isolated from to bash with outgo oregon nationalist image," she says.

"They should person been withdrawn years ago.

"It's not similar it's travel arsenic a surprise. This has been happening for a precise agelong time."

That the N57 motor had flaws archetypal became evident 9 years ago. Then, successful January 2016, came the archetypal "thermal incident" - a constabulary car occurrence caused by the aforesaid crankshaft bearing contented that aboriginal affected PC Dumphreys' car.

BMW UK reported what was happening to its German genitor institution BMW AG. Tests showed motor lipid was being degraded by precocious levels of idling - sitting, parked, with the motor running. This reduced the oil's lubrication, starring to deterioration connected the engine's crankshaft bearings.

In the August BMW passed this accusation to 2 people: the president and 1 subordinate who signifier the method committee of the voluntary National Association of Police Fleet Managers (NAPFM). Three months aboriginal BMW issued guidance that forces usage a much viscous people of lipid and alteration it much frequently, astatine 10,000-mile intervals.

This accusation was disseminated to forces via NAPFM - an "informal approach" Cumbria adjunct coroner Robert Cohen concluded was not "sufficiently robust".

BMW said it besides wrote straight to idiosyncratic constabulary forces, including Cumbria. "This was an ongoing dialog implicit a play of years, arsenic much became known astir this unsocial challenge," a spokesperson said.

Over the adjacent 2 years the institution came to the decision the "particular way" UK forces utilized their high-performance vehicles was the problem. Long hours, precocious mileage and a batch of clip sitting with the motor idling, followed by sudden, crisp acceleration and velocity enactment "extra strain connected immoderate components", it said.

Still utilizing NAPFM arsenic a conduit - though the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) aboriginal wrote to main constables advising them to comply - the institution requested work histories and introduced caller work timings based connected a punctual from in-car bundle alternatively than astatine regular intervals.

But immoderate forces resisted this Condition Based Servicing (CBS) system, which mightiness necessitate a work aft conscionable 5,000 miles, arguing this was excessively costly and reduced their cars' availability. It besides relied connected officers alerting their fleet manager erstwhile the CBS informing airy came on, they said. Many forces pressed for a instrumentality to 10,000-mile intervals.

During this clip BMW besides signalled the request to restrict tally lock, whereby a car could beryllium locked and near with the motor inactive running. Cumbria Police's fleet manager astatine the time, James Poole, sent an interior email mounting work intervals astatine 9,500 miles, but did not archer drivers to trim idling oregon tally lock, believing, wrongly, that the CBS strategy would show it.

Police cars were idling for 50% of the time, compared with 30% successful civilian cars. Forensic technologist Dr Jan Graham called the resulting nonaccomplishment complaint of 15% "extraordinarily high". Giving grounds to the inquest, helium besides said that, successful his view, the motor successful PC Dumphreys' car was, astatine the clip of the crash, "not acceptable and harmless for precocious show usage by the police".

However, BMW's N57 Customer Support Programme (CSP), introduced successful 2018 and based connected car work past and data, did not spot PC Dumphreys' car successful either of its precocious hazard categories, which would person seen its crankshaft bearing and perchance besides its timing concatenation replaced.

Mr Poole told the inquest determination was nary written argumentation regarding checking the authorities of the cars. He would simply person conversations with technicians, based connected information pulled from the strategy specified arsenic mileage oregon outgo to maintain. A technician giving grounds astatine the inquest appeared unaware of this process and said helium besides did not cognize astir the idling limitations.

Another FOI petition by the BBC has returned - precocious and aft an involution by the Information Commissioner's Office - copies of unit fleet strategy documents from 2019 onwards. Neither the papers published earlier PC Dumphreys died, nor those drawn up since, notation immoderate further measures for cars with the N57 engine.

Cumbria Police said the unit had taken "all tenable and proportionate steps fixed the accusation disposable astatine the time".

While each this was going on, constabulary cars were going up successful flames astatine a complaint Mr Cohen described arsenic "startlingly high".

None of these, oregon different fires, were mentioned by Lancashire Police successful the study it submitted to PC Dumphreys' inquest successful September 2022 aft being tasked by Cumbria Police with investigating what happened. It did not adjacent see the car occurrence wrong its ain force successful 2019, 7 months earlier PC Dumphreys' crash.

Asked why, the unit said "anything different than that collision" was not portion of its remit.

Not considering the fires and motor failures arsenic one, related, contented is wherever Mrs Dumphreys believes the forces, NAPFM and the NPCC went wrong. The deficiency of a connected attack was besides raised astatine PC Dumphreys' inquest by Mr Cohen.

He criticised "ad hoc" arrangements for cars' disposal and the information determination were nary nationalist standards for constabulary garages and mechanics. The inquest heard the Cumbria unit IT firewall blocked entree to BMW attraction programmes, truthful technicians utilized third-party bundle to recognize responsibility codes.

In effect to a "prevention of aboriginal deaths report" issued by Mr Cohen successful January, the NPCC constabulary driving lead, Deputy Chief Constable Terry Woods, promised a caller NPCC-led fleet structure to disseminate accusation and said nationalist standards were being drawn up, portion N57 disposal guidance was being reissued arsenic "NPCC branded".

He besides said helium was trying to present nationally-consistent standards for constabulary garages and mechanics but did not "yet person an honorable appraisal connected however agelong this volition instrumentality to develop, oregon so if each main constable volition hold to it".

Cumbria's main constable said helium supported the instauration of nationalist standards and would instrumentality them "where applicable and applicable" to the force's fleet.

Mrs Dumphreys argues the NPCC is allowing the usage of cars with an motor that is "not acceptable for UK policing purposes". Even with monitoring and usage restrictions "catastrophic motor failures" continued, she said. She believes cipher wants the outgo and perchance atrocious publicity of replacing them all.

"Cost is inactive being prioritised implicit safety, which is the basal origin of each of this," she says.

The NPCC said BMW had "confirmed successful writing" that, if a conveyance "met each the requirements acceptable by the manufacturer, had been taxable to BMW's CBS programme, oregon had a replacement motor which subsequently met the requirements, that conveyance had been deemed arsenic harmless for operational use".

In January 2022 - 2 years aft PC Dumphreys was killed - BMW advised forces to archer officers to debar driving astatine speed.

"Which is an implicit joke," says Mrs Dumphreys.

"If you can't thrust them arsenic you're expected to beryllium driving them arsenic a constabulary officer, get them disconnected the road.

"They're not harmless for the cops, and they're not harmless for the public."

But astir of England's constabulary forces person not taken them disconnected the road.

In their FOI responses, lone 4 forces - Cumbria, Hertfordshire, Leicester and North Yorkshire - said they had nary N57s.

But the restrictions connected usage and the enhanced attraction procedures alteration considerably crossed the country, contempt each forces receiving the aforesaid guidance.

Driving restrictions see a prohibition connected exceeding the nationalist velocity bounds and connected "unnecessary" oregon "excessive" idling, though it is not wide however necessity is determined. Not each forces necessitate both.

Lancashire Police said it imposed nary restrictions astatine all.

Three forces, responding jointly, sent 2 contradictory replies to the FOI request. At first, Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire said they had nary records of which cars had the N57 engine.

When it was pointed retired this meant they could not beryllium pursuing immoderate guidance regarding their use, they sent a caller effect saying Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire, but not Hertfordshire, did person N57 vehicles and were "following the nationalist guidance".

Despite repeated requests, they person not responded to accidental what this entails.

BMW insists it "acted responsibly successful responding to this unsocial method issue". It had ne'er seen the responsibility hap successful civilian cars, oregon successful constabulary vehicles extracurricular the UK, it said.

The institution announced successful January it was closing its part selling to UK forces but stressed this was a commercialized decision. It said accumulation of the N57 motor ended "several years ago" and vehicles supplied to constabulary successful caller years had been fitted with antithetic engines.

Both the Independent Office for Police Conduct and the Health and Safety Executive said PC Dumphreys' lawsuit was extracurricular their remit. The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency, which is liable for enforcing regulations regarding whether vehicles are maintained and utilized safely, said it was "aware of incidents involving constabulary BMWs fitted with N57 engines" but had not truthful acold "found origin to recall" them.

"I garbage to judge that Nick's lawsuit conscionable simply falls betwixt the cracks of assorted agencies and legislation, solely due to the fact that it progressive a constabulary car," Mrs Dumphreys says.

"Any different organisation oregon institution would beryllium investigated and are taxable to the requirements of the law, truthful what makes the constabulary immoderate different?"

Speaking aft the inquest, Cumbria Police Federation president Paul Williams said what happened to PC Dumphreys "cannot beryllium allowed to hap again".

"It's by luck unsocial that we haven't mislaid immoderate much lives," helium said.

It is simply a sentiment echoed by Mrs Dumphreys.

"How is it truthful elemental for everybody other to see?" she asks.

When her six-year-old asks wherefore constabulary officers are inactive driving these cars "if they killed Daddy" she thinks: "Yeah, I know.

"It's not rocket science."