AN independent investigation into the circumstances surrounding a fatal road accident after a high-speed police pursuit has been resumed.

The investigation began after Katharine Davis died when the hatchback she was travelling in crashed and overturned as driver Lee Fitzgerald tried to escape a patrol car.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission will oversee the investigation, which is being conducted by an inspector from Cleveland Police.

Work on the inquiry could not be carried out while criminal proceedings were ongoing, but Fitzgerald's case came to an end at Teesside Crown Court this week.

The 25-year-old was jailed for five years on Monday after he admitted causing the death of passenger Katharine, 20, by dangerous driving last October.

Fitzgerald, from Hartlepool, told police he had drunk five pints of lager and taken cocaine on a night out to celebrate his birthday before he got behind the wheel of a friend's Rover 216GTi.

He was giving Katharine and a work colleague a lift, along with the car's owner, when police tried to stop the hatchback at about 2.30am.

Fitzgerald raced away at speeds of up to 80mph in the built-up 30mph zone and lost control of the car when the carriageway narrowed on a bend on West View Road.

The vehicle clipped a central reservation and demolished a lamppost before overturning and landing in a field.

Katharine, a call centre trainee who had been out celebrating her first pay packet, suffered extensive crush injuries and died at the scene.

Fitzgerald suffered a serious leg injury and had to be cut from the wreckage, but told police and doctors that he had not been driving, and tried to blame car owner David Gascoigne.

Mr Gascoigne, who had warned Fitzgerald to slow down moments before the crash, and Katharine's workmate, Michael Harle, escaped with minor injuries.

A spokeswoman for Cleveland Police said last night: "Now that the criminal case is concluded, we will be in a position to progress the internal investigation."

A spokeswoman for the Independent Police Complaints Commission, which investigates all serious accidents involving police pursuits, said: "The inquiry will look at whether procedures - both national and local guidance on safety of pursuits - were followed."