New national guidelines have been introduced in England requiring police to stop relying on visual identification alone when confirming the identity of casualty victims, following a harrowing case in which two families' identities were mixed up for 22 days after a fatal car crash. The mistake meant the parents of 18-year-old Joshua Johnson believed their son was in an induced coma in hospital, while the family of 17-year-old Trevor Wynn spent Christmas preparing for his funeral, before the truth emerged when the surviving teenager regained consciousness and questioned staff calling him "Josh".

Under the College of Policing's new rules, a second, more senior officer must now sign off on any identification before relatives are told a loved one has died, unless the identification is based on fingerprints, DNA or dental records, and visual identification alone is to be treated as unreliable. The crash occurred near Todwick, South Yorkshire, on 13 December 2025, when a Toyota Corolla travelling at 86mph left the road and hit a tree, killing driver Summer Scott, 17, and one of her passengers; the error was only uncovered on 4 January after forensic checks, including dental records ordered by a specialist officer, confirmed it was Joshua who had died, not Trevor.