From the Sydney Morning Herald.
Quote:
Death of toddler and offender sparks police chase review
January 16, 2004 - 3:10PM
Police will review all car chase procedures after a pursuit ended in the death of a three-year-old girl and an offender in a head-on collision in Sydney's north-west.
Moments after police began pursuing a speeding motorist at McGraths Hill about 10pm (AEDT) yesterday, the offending vehicle, a Commodore, crossed to the wrong side of the road and hit a Ford Falcon with four occupants.
The 53-year-old male driver of the Commodore and a three-year-old child in the back seat of the Ford were killed.
The child's 26-year-old mother, 25-year-old father and 29-year-old aunt, also travelling in the car with the youngster, remain in a critical condition at Nepean Hospital.
NSW Police Deputy Commissioner Dave Madden today extended his condolences to the family of the three year-old-girl, who was from Bowen Mountain, on Sydney's north western outskirts.
"As a result of last night, we will review all our procedures," Mr Madden told reporters.
"A critical incident team has been called in and they will investigate what actually occurred."
He said this would include the decisions made by the police to pursue the vehicle, what had happened, and existing procedures.
"At the same time, the coroner, who's independent of the entire process, attended the scene last night and a full brief will be presented to the coroner to consider all of the action ... (leading to) this tragedy."
Mr Madden said the issue of police pursuits were a challenge for the community and for police.
"We always ask ourselves the same question, should we actually terminate all pursuits and just not allow them to occur?
"The difficulty you have is that in 40 per cent of the cases they (the drivers) are criminals, sometimes murderers, sometimes rapists, sometimes a whole range of other things."
Last year, police initiated about 2,100 pursuits and about 15 per cent of those ended in some form of collision.
Five people were killed as a result of police pursuits last year, Mr Madden said,
"Four of those were either drivers or passengers in vehicles that were being pursued by police, and in one case there was an innocent party."
"It comes down to ... do we let the criminals simply drive away, or do we do all that we possibly can to minimise the risk, and that's what we're trying to do.
"We have the best procedures in the country, but accidents will occur."
Mr Madden said there were no winners when it came to police car chases.
"This is a tragedy right across the board," he said.
"It's a tragedy for those who were innocently driving along, it's a tragedy for the offender who failed to stop when asked to by the police, it's a tragedy for the police who have to live with this for the rest of their lives."
AAP
Original article found HERE
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This is an interesting one, as there have been numerous instances in Australia (and I'm sure in the rest of the world as well) of serious accidents and road fatalities recorded due to police pursuits of offenders who either failed to stop for traffic infringements or because they were driving stolen vehicles, etc. and often the police get put under the pump for trying to do their job if innocent deaths happen to occur during the course of these pursuits.
On one hand you let the offenders get away if the chase gets too hot, thus meaning that the offender (who may be a murderer but could just as easily be a common car thief or a kid who didn't have his license with him) gets away, which would minimise the risk of a serious collision and/or death for bystanders and offender alike...
...or on the other hand do you pursue the offender at all costs with the sole objective of nailing his ass because the role of police is to enforce the law and it's not their fault if deaths occur in the course of them just doing their job? After all, it's the offender's fault for fleeing in the first place.
Comments?