US diplomat's wife admits to driving on wrong side when she killed UK teenager in car crash
Anne Sacoolas, the US diplomat's wife involved in a hit-and-run crash that claimed the life of UK teenager Harry Dunn, has now admitted that she was driving on the wrong side of the road at the time.
The 42-year-old said in a statement from her lawyers how she had "no time to react" after the teenager approached her vehicle on his motorbike over a hill, saying she was “terribly, terribly sorry for that tragic mistake", Daily Mail reports.
Sacoolas's admission comes as Dunn's family prepares to launch a judicial review into the Foreign office's advice to grant diplomatic immunity to his killer. Just days after the collision near RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire on August 27, Sacoolas fled to the US.
She previously claimed she spoke to Dunn at the scene and waited to comfort her own children who were in the car. “Anne was driving on the wrong side of the road and had no time to react when she saw the motorbike – the crash happened too fast", a spokesman from her law firm Arnold & Porter said. “Anne stayed on the scene of the accident to assist. She spoke to Harry Dunn to tell him that she would call for help. She waved down another car."
“That driver pulled over and offered to assist Harry so that Anne could comfort her young children, who had been in her car and were on the scene", he added.
According to the spokesman, while the Ministry of Defence police arrived at the scene within moments, the ambulance took a "long time" to respond. Harry's parents, Charlotte Charles and Tim Dunn, said they were let down by the decision to let Sacoolas flee after the accident outside RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire.
Radd Seiger, the family's spokesman, said their lawyers are now set to launch a full investigation into the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) over their advice to grant immunity to Sacoolas.
"What Mark and I are going to do, is we are going to write to the FCO very shortly, explaining that we don't want to do a judicial review, but to avoid that please let us have the following documents - all e-mails, messages, notes in relation to your advice to Northamptonshire Police that this lady had it (diplomatic immunity)," Seiger said. "What we don't know is whether somebody cocked up or whether they were put under pressure by the Americans to concede."
Seiger said the family wants to initiate a probe into the FCO's decision to advise Northamptonshire Police that Sacoolas had the benefit of diplomatic immunity. "If we're not satisfied, then we'll go to a judicial review and ask a High Court judge to review it all", he added. As of now, Harry's heartbroken parents are raising money for their case.