TEENAGER Tamzin Hall, from Wellington, died after she was able to remove her handcuffs in a police car and then run across the M5 motorway.

Two police officers were driving Tamzin, aged 17, to a custody suite in Bridgwater last November 11 when they pulled over and stopped on the hard shoulder of the northbound carriageway shortly before 11 pm.

Tamzin fled the car and ran across the first three lanes of the motorway and jumped the central reservation crash barrier before she was hit and killed by a vehicle driving south.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) has been looking at the ‘actions, decision-making, and risk assessments’ by the officers and if they followed relevant training and policies.

Now, an IOPC annual report on deaths in which police contact was involved has been made public and gives details of the incident without naming Tamzin as the person involved.

It outlined how Tamzin took off her handcuffs, climbed from the rear seat to the front passenger seat of the police car, and exited it.

The IOPC report said: “A female child was arrested for assault and criminal damage.

“She was placed in the rear passenger side of a marked police car and handcuffed with her hands positioned in front.

“An officer was seated next to her during transport.

“While on her way to custody, the child managed to remove her handcuffs, climb into the front passenger seat, access the front passenger door, and get out of the moving car.

“The child died at the scene.”

An inquest which was opened into Tamzin’s death heard she suffered head, neck and chest injuries before the proceedings were adjourned until a date still to be confirmed.

Tamzin, a former pupil of Court Fields School, Wellington, was living in Henlade, Taunton, at the time, and was a student.