British coroner criticizes US government for 2019 death of teenage motorcyclist Harry Dunn

LONDON — A British coroner on Thursday criticized the US government for a lack of training for diplomatic staff following an investigation into an August 2019 road accident in which a teenage motorcyclist was killed by a of its employees.

At the end of the four-day inquest into the accident outside RAF Croughton, an air base in eastern England used by US forces, Northamptonshire coroner Anne Pember said recorded that the death of 19-year-old Harry Dunn was the result of “injuries sustained in a head-on collision” with a car traveling on the wrong side of the road.

Unlike the United States, in the United Kingdom drivers drive on the left side of the road.

In a statement read out at the inquest, the driver, Anne Sacoolas, admitted to police that she “drove like an American” and had received no driving training in the UK.

Sacoolas, who told police she worked as an analyst for the US State Department, refused to travel to the UK from the US for the investigation.

“I made a tragic mistake that I will live with every day for the rest of my life,” she said in a written statement to the inquest. “Not a day goes by that I don’t think of Harry and I am deeply sorry for the pain I have caused.”

Sacoolas and her husband, a U.S. intelligence officer, returned to the United States 19 days after the accident. The American government had invoked diplomatic immunity in its favour, causing an outcry in Britain.

Sacoolas pleaded guilty by video link to causing death by careless driving in December 2022 at London's Central Criminal Court after being advised by the US administration against making the trip. We gave him a sentence of eight months in prisonsuspended for one year, with the judge in the case reducing the sentence due to Sacoolas' guilty plea and his previous good character.

Speaking outside court on Thursday, Dunn's mother Charlotte Charles reiterated her “disgust” at the decision by Sacoolas and the US embassy not to attend the inquest, calling it “disrespectful” to his son.

“It further reinforces my opinion that they have no respect for me or my family, our family at large,” she said. “They don’t care.”