The pilot’s calm voice crackled through their speakers. ‘Shoreham, Helimed Six Zero, five hundred foot Portslade, inbound Hove, major road accident.’

The crisp reply from Shoreham Air Traffic Control came back. ‘Acknowledged. Surface wind at Shoreham two four zero at ten knots. We have IFR traffic, a King Air inbound 1,500 feet Devil’s Dyke.’

‘Thanks Shoreham, will call again lifting.’

For tight landings like this, both medics acted as crew, peering out of the windows for hazards and, in particular here, cables. As their speed of descent slowed, he could see flashing blue lights on the roofs of several police vehicles, each marked with their call signs. A white-and-blue BMW i8 had slewed at an angle. A short distance behind it several people stood or knelt around a crumpled figure lying on the road. A police officer in a fluorescent jacket was acting as batman, signalling them in.

Turner knew this long and very wide road well – as a child he had lived in one of the quiet, tree-lined streets that ran south from it down to the seafront. With its mix of detached houses, many now occupied by medical practices, elegant Victorian semis and terraces and low-rise flats, this whole area, being so close to the beaches, was a popular and much sought-after residential neighbourhood.

The pilot manoeuvred the helicopter by hover-taxiing just a couple of hundred yards in front of the BMW, a little to the right, then left, before it touched down almost imperceptibly and settled on its wheels. The pilot, keeping the rotors turning, said, ‘Go!’

Turner pulled off his helmet, grabbed his bag, pushed open the door and jumped down, followed a few seconds later by the paramedic. She stopped when she was clear of the rotor blades to turn back and give the pilot a thumbs-up.

38

Tuesday 3 September

Turner ran up to the BMW and stopped for a brief moment to assess it. Damage to a vehicle would tell him a great deal about the likely injuries sustained by the pedestrian.

Also, with older and cheaper vehicles, skid marks would be a good indicator of speed, but not on a wet road, and in any case this modern BMW’s braking system eliminated those. The Collision Investigation Unit would calculate the car’s speed later, using the BMW’s onboard computer and any local CCTV, by creating a computer-aided mock-up of the accident.

Looking at the front of the car, he saw that part of the number plate was broken off and there was a severe dent in the bumper, indicating it had struck the boy in the legs, likely breaking both of them but hopefully not shattering his knees, which could impact on his future mobility, if he survived.

In any frontal collision between a motor vehicle and a pedestrian, there were three possibilities. The first was that the victim had gone underneath the vehicle. The second was that they’d been thrown sideways. The third was that they’d gone over the top, which looked to be the case here.