Grandmother killed by police's 100mph boy racer - delivering a birthday card to his sister

A policeman has been suspended after knocking down and killing a grandmother during an appalling boy-racer trip to deliver a birthday card to his sister while he was on duty.

Sounding his siren and flashing his blue lights, the officer reached speeds of up to 100mph after being granted permission to leave his police station to hand over the card.

He then treated a relative to a high-speed 'black run' tour of the local area - again with blaring siren and emergency lights.

After dropping the relative back at their home, the officer sped back to his police station.

It was then, while doing nearly twice the speed limit with his blue lights flashing, that he ran over and killed married mother-of-three Sandy Simpson, 61.

Colleagues of the officer in the Metropolitan Police, a newly-qualified 'standard response driver', are disgusted by his conduct and failure to resign.

Such drivers are authorised to use blue lights and sirens to answer 999 calls. However, they are not allowed to carry out extended pursuits.

The officer, 23, lives with his parents and younger sister in Swanley, Kent. He has been suspended on full pay pending the outcome of a probe by the Independent Police Complaints Commission, which is liaising with the Crown Prosecution Service.

Legal sources expect him to be charged with causing death by dangerous driving, which carries a maximum sentence of 14 years, or manslaughter, which can result in a life term.

'Nobody can remember a case so appalling as this,' said a colleague last night. 'This officer has broken every rule in the book and should be locked up for a very long time indeed.

'It is a disgrace that he has not yet resigned from the Met.'

A mobile data terminal recovered from the police car has revealed details of the astonishing journey which resulted in Mrs Simpson's death on August 23, as she walked near her home in Bromley, Kent.

It has disclosed the terrifying speeds and route taken by the officer as he drove from Bromley to his home in Swanley, several miles away, to deliver the card. At one point, he reached 100mph.

He was doing 57mph on a road which has a 30mph speed limit, when he ran over Mrs Simpson.

Guidelines say sirens and blue lights must only be used in an emergency 'for police purposes'.

Mrs Simpson, a receptionist, was a few yards from her home when the police vehicle hit her at the junction of Gundulph Road and Homesdale Road.

Her family, including her childhood sweetheart husband, Peter, looked on in horror as emergency services tried to resuscitate her.

A neighbour, who did not want to be named, said: 'There were so many police everywhere. It was chaos. The paramedics must have tried for 20 minutes to resuscitate her.

'Her husband was walking around like he was in a daze. He would go away and then come back again and sometimes he was shouting at the police.

'I saw them bring out a red blanket and wrap her up. He lay over her holding her and kissing her. I feel so sorry for the family.'

A post mortem examination concluded that Mrs Simpson had died from head and chest injuries. She leaves a daughter Natasha, 32, and sons Darren, 28, Elliot, 22, as well as grandsons Jacob and Sonny.

Last night her husband of 43 years, Peter, spoke of his devastation. 'My wife was a wonderful woman,' he said. 'We are a close family and we are pulling together. But I don't have my Sandra anymore. It's devastating.'

Flashback: Ordeal of the newsreader

The death of Mrs Simpson comes almost a decade after Channel 4 newsreader Sheena McDonald was hit by a speeding police van.

That accident led to a review of standards of police driving.

The van was travelling on the wrong side of the road in Islington, North London, responding to a 999 call when it struck Miss McDonald, now 54, a former girlfriend of Gordon Brown.

She suffered massive head injuries and later sued the Metropolitan Police after the officer at the wheel was cleared of careless driving.

In her writ she complained that had lost her sense of smell and taste, had been disfigured, and her sight impaired.

She also claimed that her health and career prospects had been irreparably damaged as a result of the accident in 1999 which left her in a coma for 72 hours, on a ventilator in intensive care for a fortnight and in various hospitals for two months.

The Met settled out of court.

The Home Office said 126 people were killed in accidents involving police vehicles in England and Wales between 2000 and 2004.