Requesting a large volume of Inquest Reports

blackmadra

For a college project that I am proposing on, I would require detailes on certain specific road traffic deaths over the past 10 years. I won't go into all the details here but I would be looking to get access to the Inquest reports for all of these deaths. I can find some of the information I need from various news websites but I would need the full inquest report for each of these. I think I will need roughly around 100 reports. I will be able to provide the name of the person who died in each case.



Has anybody got any experiece or advice on this? Can anybody answer any of these:

• Can I do a bulk request or do I need to do 100 individual requests?
• What is the cost?
• Do I need to write to the specific coroner in each county or is there a central office that can provide the data I need?
• Can I do it through email or do I need to post letters?
• Will I recieve a hard or soft copy of the reports?
• How many years do they keep an inquest report on file for?

Thanks in advance for the helpful advice.

Victor

What college and discipline are you in? I, and others, may be able to help you in certain regards.

blackmadra wrote: »

I would need the full inquest report for each of these.

Note that the published report is quite short and merely gives a superficial number of details. Unless it is a narrative verdict, you might find out very little about the collision or its causes. You might need to see the whole file.

blackmadra wrote: »

[*]Can I do a bulk request or do I need to do 100 individual requests?

I imagine one request per coroner would be sufficient.

blackmadra wrote: »

[*]What is the cost?

About €7-10 per report. Access to the full file might need correspondence from your head of department / faculty to the coroners, would likely require written agreement, but might be free.

blackmadra wrote: »

[*]Do I need to write to the specific coroner in each county or is there a central office that can provide the data I need?

I'm not aware of any central office, but it is highly likely that it exists in some form.

blackmadra wrote: »

[*]Can I do it through email or do I need to post letters?

Letters might work better.

blackmadra wrote: »

[*]Will I recieve a hard or soft copy of the reports?

I'm sure both might be available.

blackmadra wrote: »

[*]How many years do they keep an inquest report on file for?

Possibly forever, but after a few years they are likely to be archived.

drunkmonkey

It would be interesting to see what cars were involved, it's never mentioned here but we know from the UK some of the best selling cars here are on the most deadly list there, it grinds my gears when I look at a new car price list and airbags are on the options list as manufacturers are trying to keep the VRT and price down.

Mod
A tad off topic - there are other threads for discussion of car prices and options etc

NUTLEY BOY

Would OP be entitled to apply for copies of the depositions [witness statements] ?

It's a while since I last saw coroner's depositions but they always included the post mortem report. The latter was quite relevant to the civil aspect of causation of death.

by8auj6csd3ioq

pardon my intrusion op. if i were to make a request would the family of the deceased be notified? Anyone know?

Note that the published report is quite short and merely gives a superficial number of details. Unless it is a narrative verdict, you might find out very little about the collision or its causes. You might need to see the whole file.

can you get the whole file

Victor

Madalynn Spoiled Speculator wrote: »

pardon my intrusion op. if i were to make a request would the family of the deceased be notified? Anyone know?

Unlikely. I imagine the family would only be notified if there was something the Coroner was uneasy about releasing, in which case they would likely refuse that part of the file and only contact the family if you insisted it was released.

When you think about it, if full files were released habitually, news reports would be full of the details.

can you get the whole file

I don't have an answer to that yet.

by8auj6csd3ioq

Victor wrote: »

Unlikely. I imagine the family would only be notified if there was something the Coroner was uneasy about releasing, in which case they would likely refuse that part of the file and only contact the family if you insisted it was released.

When you think about it, if full files were released habitually, news reports would be full of the details.

I don't have an answer to that yet.

OK thanks. So what do you get- a short report? Would it say the cause of death and if the person had alcohol taken or drugs?

Victor

Madalynn Spoiled Speculator wrote: »

So what do you get- a short report?

I get the impression it is usually a single page.

Would it say the cause of death

Yes, in medical terms.

if the person had alcohol taken or drugs?

I suspect only if this was relevant. If a passenger died in a major plane crash, their alcohol intake would likely have no effect on cause of death.