Coroner warns Jaguar Land Rover over £70,000 electric SUV design after boy, 7, died in fatal crush
Alfie Tollett, 7, tragically died after being crushed between two vehicles outside of a Plymouth rugby club, leaving the young lad with ‘blunt force traumatic chest injuries’
A coroner has urged Jaguar Land Rover to recons
ider the design of their £70,000 electric SUVs, the I-PACE, after the tragic death of a seven-year-old boy in February 2023. In the horrific incident that lasted moments, Alfie Tollett was crushed between two vehicles while putting on his rugby boots.
Alfie, seven, was attending one of his brother’s rugby games at Plymstock Albion Oaks RFC in Plymouth when he was pinned between his family’s car and van, after the driver of a Jaguar I-PACE pressed the wrong button while trying to reverse. The SUV driver “relied on feel” to find the reverse button, but ended up accelerating forward for 10 seconds, shunting the van in front into Alfie.
Despite the quick efforts of Alfie’s father to move the family car forward and release his son, the seven-year-old rugby fan died shortly after. His cause of death was ruled as being due to blunt force traumatic chest injuries.
Unlike conventional vehicles, the Jaguar I-Pace does not have a regular gear stick, instead relying on an automatic transmission with three buttons – drive, neutral, and reverse.
In the tragic February 19 incident, the 55-year-old man “used his left hand to select the reverse button” in order to straighten up the car, which belonged to his wife. However, he did not check the button and instead relied on his sense of touch to make the selection, and then ignored a warning alarm.
Plymouth Coroner Deborah Archer issued a Prevention of Future Deaths report at the close of the inquest into Alfie’s tragic end, acknowledging the driver’s “number of errors” but pointed to a potential problem with the design of the car’s electric transmission. Addressing Jaguar, she said: “In my opinion action should be taken to prevent future deaths and I believe you have the power to take such action”
In addition to failing to check he was in reverse before pressing the accelerator, police officers investigating the incident found that the man failed to press the vehicle’s break once, even while his car went forward for 10 seconds and rear-ended the van parked in front.
Coroner Archer said: “However, these errors occurred as a result of there being no intermediary step within the Jaguar ipace being necessary to put the car into drive/reverse other than pressing a button .
“In the police officer’s opinion if there had also been a lever or something similar present in the vehicle that needed to be engaged before a button was pressed this may have alerted [REDACTED] to the fact that he had pushed the incorrect button on the 3 button console.”
A 55-year-old man was arrested by Devon and Cornwall Police on suspicion of causing death by careless driving after the incident in February 2023, and was later released on police bail. However, the driver died of natural causes before he could be prosecuted, leaving his name redacted from the Coroner’s report.
Jaguar Land Rover has until October 22 to respond to the report.
