US Diplomat’s Wife Flees England, Claims Immunity After Fatal Traffic Accident

The wife of a U.S. diplomat recently claimed immunity and has fled the U.K. after being involved in a fatal traffic accident on Aug. 27. British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab on Saturday urged the U.S. to reconsider its decision to let the woman use her diplomatic immunity to leave the country.

The 42-year-old woman was driving a Volvo SUV on the wrong side of the road near Royal Air Force Croughton, a U.S. communications station in Northamptonshire. She struck Harry Dunn, 19, who was riding a motorcycle. Dunn was later pronounced dead at the hospital.

Authorities met with the woman, who claimed diplomatic immunity as a dependent of her husband. Police attempted to receive a waiver that would allow them to pursue a case against the woman but were rejected.

Both the U.S. diplomat and his wife have not been named.

“I wish to offer my condolences to the family affected by this tragic incident,” foreign secretary Dominic Raab told Sky News, expressing disappointment about the matter. “I have called the U.S. Ambassador to express the U.K.'s disappointment with their decision, and to urge the Embassy to re-consider it.”

Dunn’s family have also publicly expressed outrage over the decision, even going so far as to ask President Donald Trump to step in.

“We're disgusted, appalled, how she could be having this cloak wrapped around her,” Harry Dunn's father Tim Dunn said. “I'm angry that someone could do this and then get on a plane and go.”

“We don't know how we can start to grieve for him,” his mother Charlotte Charles said. “We have nothing. No justice. We have nothing to put our minds at rest that she's even remorseful.”

The U.S. Embassy issued the following statement: “We express our deepest sympathies and offer condolences to the family of the deceased in the tragic August 27 traffic accident involving a vehicle driven by the spouse of a U.S. diplomat assigned to the United Kingdom.”