Road-crash relatives 'treated with disdain': Victim support group says authorities rarely offer counselling to next-of-kin - Police criticised for treating deaths as 'acceptable everyday occurrence'

RELATIVES of road accident victims are often treated with disdain by the authorities and are rarely offered information or counselling, according to a report published yesterday.

About 4,000 people are killed on the roads every year but the report finds that there is no standard way in which relatives of victims are treated.

In response to a series of complaints from relatives, Victim Support set up a working party two years ago to examine services they were offered. Its members included senior police officers and a representative of coroners' offices.

The working party's report catalogues a series of failures by the authorities in dealing with road accident victims. Relatives were left 'confused and bewildered' by the 'sheer range of agencies and services' with whom they have to deal.

Often, relatives are not even informed about court hearings or their outcomes because there is no established means of communication.

In one case, a police officer informing a mother of the death of her son, got his name and his job wrong. Another family found out about the death from a message left on their answering machine and in a third case a message was left with neighbours. The pain of victims is often compounded by coming face-to-face with the driver responsible for the crash at court hearings or by the failure of police to pursue drivers in time for proceedings to be brought.

Brigitte Chaudhry, of the road crash victim support group RoadPeace, says that families often feel that the loss of a loved one has been trivialised by the system. 'Help should be available automatically to all families of road death victims. The injustice of the legal system, which in most cases disregards the death, exacerbates the suffering even further.' She said that the police often treat road deaths as an acceptable everyday occurrence rather than being fully aware of the importance of the event to the families.

About two-thirds of local Victim Support groups are prepared to help bereaved families of road victims, even though many have not died as a result of a crime. Helen Reeves, director of national Victim Support, said: 'It is difficult to imagine any tragedy worse than a sudden violent bereavement.

'We were shocked to find out how little was done for families bereaved in this way.'

Essex police have developed a comprehensive way of dealing with road crash victims. For every road death, a police officer is appointed to tell the relatives and to liaise between the relatives' victims and the authorities.

The police officer continues to help the bereaved family until the end of court and legal proceedings. It is a model that Victim Support and RoadPeace is seeking to have adopted throughout the UK.

Support for the families of road death victims; Victim Support, 39 Brixton Road, London SW9 6DZ.