Two police officers have been cleared by the police watchdog after an investigation into their handling of a passenger who died after falling at Leeds railway station.
In announcing the ruling, the Independent Police Complaints Commission highlighted gaps in healthcare services at the station following the death of John Patrick Freeman in 2011.
Mr Freeman, 67, died in hospital 10 days after hitting his head on May 12, 2011.
He fell after being removed from a Sheffield to Leeds train by two British Transport Police officers after the conductor raised concerns that he was drunk.
The officers helped Mr Freeman, who was from Elsecar near Barnsley, away from the platform to a bench on the station concourse.
They stayed with him for nearly an hour after he refused medical help. He later got up to buy a ticket from a self-service machine, where he collapsed.
The BTP officers called an ambulance and Mr Freeman was put on life support at Leeds General Infirmary.
Following medical advice about his deteriorating condition, a decision was made by his family to switch the life support machine off on May 22.
The IPCC found the officers did what they could to ensure Mr Freeman’s welfare, and that neither could have foreseen that he would fall.
It ruled they had no case to answer.
IPCC commissioner Sarah Green said: “We conducted a thorough, independent investigation into police contact with Mr Freeman prior to his death and found that the officers had limited options available to them, and took what steps they could to ensure Mr Freeman’s welfare.”
An inquest into Mr Freeman’s death at Wakefield Coroner’s Court heard he was more than four times the legal drink drive limit at the time of the incident. A narrative verdict was recorded.
The IPCC said it had identified “a lack of policies, procedures or reciprocal arrangements with healthcare services” to assist officers dealing with someone who was drunk but had not committed an offence.
Ms Green added: “BTP is reviewing its guidance and training for officers to assist them in dealing with such situations in future.”