Joseph Geoffrey Carroll

In the early hours of the morning, as PC Carroll was driving a prisoner to Etal Lane police station in Newcastle, and travelling at seventy miles-per-hour, the drunken prisoner tried to stop the car by grabbing the handbrake, causing the vehicle to lose control, leave the road and overturn close to the junction of the A69 and A68 roads near Corbridge, Northumberland.

Although escorted by another officer, the prisoner was sitting alone, unrestrained, in the back seat of the patrol car.

Joseph died in Newcastle General Hospital from a serious head injury sustained in the accident.

The second officer was also injured in the accident but survived.

PC Carroll, a married man, had served as a police officer for twenty-four years.