The family of a man who died after being seriously injured in an ambulance crash remains divided over whether the driver should be retried.

Keith Fuller, 66, was in the back of the emergency vehicle when it hit a roundabout at about 43mph and flipped onto its side on the A299 Hengist Way in Cliffsend.

The dad-of-one, who was battling cancer, died the next day.

But the ambulance driver, Graham Burgess, escaped a charge of causing death by dangerous driving because prosecutors said there was "insufficient evidence" to prove Mr Fuller had died from his injuries.

Burgess - who worked for a private ambulance firm and was at the end of his fifth consecutive 12-hour night shift at the time of the crash - was instead charged and convicted of the lesser offence of dangerous driving, narrowly escaping a jail sentence.

Mr Fuller's younger brother, Tony, is calling for Burgess to be brought back before the courts after a coroner ruled chest injuries sustained by the pensioner in the crash caused his death.

But Mr Fuller's son says enough grief has been caused, and says the case should be laid to rest.

Tony Fuller, 66, said: "At the moment, what's happened is totally wrong. It's not good enough. Justice hasn't been done. I think he should be retried.

"It's definitely the accident that caused my brother's death. I don't know how nobody could see or understand that before - I was fuming.

"If they were really waiting for more evidence to come back in, then the trial shouldn't have gone ahead in the first place without that information. It's Mickey Mouse. It's not fair."

The inquest at Maidstone County Hall heard how Mr Fuller was terminally ill with advanced prostate and bladder cancer, and had been receiving respite care at a home in Sturry.

He was due to return to his own house once it had been modified for his care, but after blood tests showed he could have renal failure, doctors asked for the retired drayman to be brought to the QEQM Hospital in Margate.

"I started shouting 'he's dead, he'd dead'..."

In the early hours of February 3, 2018, two ambulance workers arrived to collect Mr Fuller, strapping him to a stretcher in the vehicle.

They set off just after 1am, travelling without lights and sirens, with ambulance technician Burgess driving and paramedic Neil Kerridge riding in the back.

At about 1.30am, Mr Kerridge felt "an almighty jolt".

"I felt the vehicle launch off the floor, and I heard Keith make a grunt," he said in a statement read before the inquest. "We seemed to be rolling. It felt like forever.

"About halfway through, Keith ended up next to me. I grabbed hold of him to try to protect him."

The ambulance had hit the edge of the roundabout, before jumping over it and landing on its side, with Mr Fuller coming to rest on the vehicle's wall.

"I looked at Keith and he just stared at me," recalls Mr Kerridge. "I said 'Keith' and he just stared at me and I thought he was dead. I started shouting 'he's dead, he'd dead'. I asked if Graham could could get out. I told him to get out and call for help."

Realising Mr Fuller was still alive, Mr Kerridge quickly called 999 and tried to make him comfortable.

Passers-by rushed to help, including a Tesco lorry driver who recalled seeing the windscreen completely missing, while Burgess was "being sick and had blood on his face".

A second ambulance crew rushed to the scene and took Mr Fuller to Ashford's William Harvey Hospital. There, he was found to have fractured four ribs, and was given CT scans for a head injury.

Tony describes arriving at the hospital to find his brother unconscious in bed.

"All I could see was a dressing around his head that was completely soaked in blood," he said. "I just thought 'oh my god'.

"Then Keith woke up, and he saw me and he reached out, and said 'Tony, Tony, please don't hurt me any more'. And he started to cry. That was horrible. He's never cried in all the time I've seen him, all the time we grew up together. Then he went back to sleep."

Mr Fuller developed pneumonia, and sadly died the following day.

At the inquest, Dr Habib, a consultant at the William Harvey, said the chest injuries Mr Fuller sustained in the crash had led to the pneumonia. "The injury finished him," he added.

Collision investigator PC David Burley told the court no mechanical defects had been found when the ambulance was examined.

He told how Burgess claimed to have seen a "blinding light", but that he had found no evidence of this, and that while three straps on the stretcher had been fastened around Mr Fuller, two shoulder straps had not been used.

PC Burley revealed that the vehicle had been travelling at about 43mph when the vehicle reached the "large" roundabout.

When asked by coroner Sonia Hayes if this is a "safe" speed, he replied: "No. Even 30mph would probably be too fast."

Burgess denied a charge of dangerous driving but was convicted on February 13 last year.

He was sentenced to 18 weeks in prison, suspended for a year, and banned from driving for 18 months. He was also fined £1,800 and ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid community work.

Before charging him, the Crown Prosecution Service obtained an expert report from an experienced pathologist, who concluded that, given Mr Fuller's state of health before the crash, there was "reasonable doubt" as to whether the collision had caused his death.

A CPS spokesman said: "To proceed with a prosecution for causing death by dangerous driving, the prosecution needs to be able to prove that the driving and collision were a cause of death and, having very carefully considered the expert medical information we received, we concluded there was insufficient evidence to prove that in this case.”

Yet in concluding last month's inquest, coroner Sonia Hayes ruled Mr Fuller's death was primarily caused by pneumonia and chest injuries, with "metastatic transitional cell carcinoma" - the cancer - listed as a secondary cause. "The accident contributed to his death," she said.

The CPS declined to comment directly on the potential for a retrial, instead directing the Gazette to information on its website, which says that retrials are permitted "in respect of a number of very serious offences, where new and compelling evidence has come to light".

It says: "The decision to seek a retrial will very much depend upon the public interest. Only cases involving significant public interest factors in favour of prosecution warrant a retrial.

"Normally the CPS makes any application for a retrial. However, the defence can request a retrial in certain circumstances, including where fresh evidence has come to light."

The CPS says it is "unaware of any new evidence" in this case, but that in light of the inquest conclusion, it will be making contact with the coroner’s office and liaising directly with Mr Fuller's family.

Fifth straight night shift

Graham Burgess had been working his fifth 12-hour night shift in a row at the time of the crash, the inquest heard.

The ambulance technician, who had 29 years of experience, was working for SSG - a private ambulance firm that was contracted by South East Coast Ambulance Service (Secamb) to operate ambulances on its behalf.

Keith Sole, who was a Secamb operational team leader at Thanet when the accident happened, said: "Mr Burgess was on his fifth 12-hour shift in a row. I wouldn't have said it was usual practice, but it's not unheard of."

He added the incident raised concerns Burgess was in breach of the working time directive - which gives EU workers the right to certain breaks and rest, and restricts excessive night work.

Burgess had taken rest days on January 27 and 28, but had then worked for five days straight from 29 to Feburary 2.

Secamb confirmed that while it does not roster staff to work more than four night shifts in a row, staff are able to book further overtime shifts as long as their work pattern complies with the working time directive.

A spokesman said: “Our thoughts are with Mr Fuller’s family at this difficult time. We investigated this incident and also provided evidence at the inquest.

"We have strict governance in place for the use of private providers. We have measures in place to ensure our staff work strictly in line with the working time directive.

"All private providers we work with must also provide assurance as part of their contract that they comply with the directive."

SSG ceased being a private provider for Secamb in September. The firm is now no longer in operation, after going into administration.

'Let's not make more grief'

Mr Fuller's son says he accepts the crash was a "terrible error" and does not wish to add to the driver's grief by taking further action.

In a statement issued on behalf of Ben Ward-Fuller, his solicitor, Donna Payne, said: "He was disappointed to hear that this accident occurred in the last 30 minutes of a 12-hour shift, on the fifth day of consecutive 12-hour shifts.

"He would hope that in future, the ambulance service, when it sub-contracts, would make sure that the company it works with has the same maximum consecutive number of shifts as they use themselves.

"But that all said, his father was terminally ill.

"He had been told in January that his father had but weeks to live, and he is conscious of the fact that no ambulance driver would ever start their shift and think 'I will behave recklessly and put anyone in danger'.

"He accepts this was a terrible error, and decisions made by the driver after the accident were probably ill-advised, but he knows no one in that ambulance wished to hurt his father, and he doesn't want to take the matter any further.

"The ambulance driver presumably has already lost his livelihood, because he's been convicted of dangerous driving, and he assumes that ambulance driver has suffered emotional, financial and personal grief, and continues to suffer the consequences of this terrible accident, and surely that's enough.

"There's enough grief - lets not make any more."

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