Just before the crash

The lead up to the crash.

What Happened

The boat — carrying armed officers — was responding to reports of a “person in the water” near Battersea. As it raced upriver, witnesses reported seeing two police vessels travelling quickly, with one producing a wake that may have contributed to the collision. Moments later, people on the bridge heard a “boom” as the boat hit the bridge.

The impact threw three officers into the Thames, where they remained for around ten minutes before being rescued by nearby boats and emergency crews.

Emergency Response

The incident prompted a large multi‑agency operation involving:

• London Ambulance Service
• London Fire Brigade
• RNLI
• Air ambulance and police helicopter
• Specialist river units

Westminster Bridge was immediately closed, traffic halted, and parts of Westminster Underground Station shut down as emergency services worked to recover the injured officers.

Five officers were hurt, four seriously (though not life‑threatening), and taken to hospital. No members of the public were injured.

Aftermath

The damaged police boat was later towed away by a fire service vessel. The Metropolitan Police confirmed that the circumstances surrounding the crash will be fully reviewed, including operational decision‑making, vessel handling, and river conditions at the time.

Why this matters to us

Our volunteers check all the life buoys and their cases and discovered on life buoy was missing and spent several weeks trying to get this replaced, enquiries highlighted that this should have been replaced within 24 hours.

When the police boat crashed into Westminster Bridge the life ring had still not been replaced and they had crashed directly under the missing life ring.

Fortunately the police officers were wearing automatically inflating life jackets when they went into the water.

This could have turned out very differently if a member of the public had gone into the water.

A member of the public had thrown another life ring into the water, however this was also not replaced within 24 hours.

What did we do

We always do something rather than nothing and follow up. On this occasion we had liaised with the Met police and the relevant authorities with suggestions including providing information on the life belt housing with regards to who shoulld be contacted if life rings are missing or the housing cabinets are damaged.