Families of Wimbledon school crash victims say investigation was flawed

The families of Nuria Sajjad and Selena Lau say the first police inquiry into the Wimbledon school crash missed crucial lines of investigation, forcing them to press for answers long after two 8-year-old girls were killed at an end-of-term celebration.

The crash happened on 6 July 2023 at The Study Preparatory School in Wimbledon, south-west London, when a Land Rover Defender smashed through a fence and into the school grounds during a final-day summer term tea party. Nuria Sajjad and Selena Lau died, and more than a dozen other people were injured in the chaos that followed.

The case took a major turn in June 2024, when the Crown Prosecution Service said the driver, Claire Freemantle, would not face criminal charges. Prosecutors said the evidence suggested she had likely suffered an epileptic seizure behind the wheel and said there was no evidence she had previously had such a seizure or a prior diagnosed medical condition. The families, however, said they remained unconvinced the investigation had been conducted thoroughly, and concerns were then raised by them and other affected parties.

That prompted the Metropolitan Police to launch a review in 2024. Former headteacher Helen Lowe said she felt let down by the police investigation and pointed to areas where officers appeared not to know or remember basic information. In October 2024, the Met reopened the case after its internal review found a number of lines of inquiry that needed further examination.

The investigation escalated again on 28 January 2025, when detectives rearrested Freemantle, then 48, on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving. Police said she was being investigated again as part of the reopened case, and Detective Superintendent Lewis Basford said officers believed there were witnesses who had not yet come forward.

For the families, the central issue has not only been how two children died, but whether the system responded with enough rigor the first time. The reopening, the rearrest and the search for additional witnesses have turned the case into a test of police scrutiny, prosecutorial judgment and whether institutional failures delayed a fuller accounting of what happened at The Study Preparatory School.