Family who spent three weeks believing son survived fatal crash say it felt like going through 'two deaths'

The family of a teenager who were wrongly told their son had survived a crash only to discover three weeks later that he had died have said it felt like they had suffered ‘two deaths’.

Joshua Johnson, 18, died alongside Summer Louise Scott, 17, when the car they were in left the road in Rotherham and hit a tree on 13 December last year.

But in a heartbreaking mix-up, police originally mixed Joshua up with his friend 17-year-old Trevor Wynn who had survived the crash.

Joshua’s family sat at Trevor’s bedside for three weeks, believing it was their son.

Meanwhile, Trevor’s family thought their son had died in the crash.

The truth only came to light three weeks later when Trevor came on 4 January.

An inquest into Joshua’s death has opened this week at Doncaster Coroner’s Court.

Joshua Johnson, 18, died in the crash last December (Facebook)

A statement from Joshua’s dad Lee Johnson was read out at the inquest, where he said he and his wife had spent weeks at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital, in Sheffield, believing they were sitting with their serious injured son, only to be told there had been a mistake.

“This information came as a huge shock and I cannot comprehend it,” he said.

“It felt like, as a family, we had two deaths.

“I felt I had missed out on the initial grieving part of the process.”

Senior coroner Nicola Mundy read the statement of Detective Chief Inspector Andy Knowles, of South Yorkshire Police, who told the court in January how the mix-up began when a number of items of personal property were found at the scene, ‘though were not physically about the person of either of the males’.

One of these items was a phone in a case, which also contained Joshua’s driving licence.

A second phone nearby contained medical ID information in Trevor’s name, and a bank card in the same name was also attached.

Knowles told the court earlier this year how an officer used this information to trace Trevor’s mother, who provided a college ID card, as well as a description of his build and footwear.

The senior officer said: “That officer then took this ID card to Rotherham Mortuary where, at that time, the deceased victim of the collision was booked in as an unknown male.

“Upon considering the comparison between the male’s features against the ID, and also considering the descriptive details of build and clothing, the officer was satisfied that this was the body of Trevor Wynn.”

Knowles said a second officer, with the surviving but sedated teenager, was told this person was Joshua Johnson by colleagues at the crash site, and was able to obtain a photograph from Joshua’s driving licence.

Trevor Wynn's family spent weeks thinking their son was dead (Facebook)

He said: “The officer liaised with medical staff and the photograph was compared against the casualty.

“Those present were then satisfied that this person was Joshua Johnson.”

Mr Knowles explained how he set out establishing the true identity of the deceased male with ‘no further reliance in this case on visual recognition as a form of ID’ and this was done using dental records.

Earlier this year, the police watchdog, which is investigating the misidentification error, said it was ‘clear something has gone very wrong’, leading to ‘awful consequences’ for the two families.

A spokesman for the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said on Monday (7 September) that the investigation was ‘at an advanced stage’ and they hoped it would conclude ‘in the coming weeks’.

South Yorkshire Assistant Chief Constable Colin McFarlane said: “We recognise the shock and significant distress caused by the misidentification following the collision on Todwick Road, and the unimaginable consequences this had for the families involved.

“Only those involved can truly understand.”