Tragic and pointless stupidity of trying to outrun the law
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OPINION: In simpler times, whenever motorists were signalled to pull over by the police they did so. And, stayed pulled over ... taking the subsequent lecture, breath-test or speeding ticket either grudgingly or with good grace. That's still the case on all but a very few occasions.
However, the appalling practice of hitting the accelerator instead of the brake and attempting to outrun the law is becoming increasingly common – all too often with fatal consequences. In just nine months, 10 people have been killed during or as a consequence of police chases.
The latest came in Christchurch on Thursday night. An elderly couple were killed when a fleeing young driver ran a red light and smashed into their car. He was "well known" to the police, a disqualified driver, and suffered minor head injuries. One of his victims died at the scene, the other in hospital shortly afterwards. It might sound harsh, but the wrong people died.
Also this week, another car chase killer has made headlines. A 20-year-old Blenheim woman, sentenced last week to home detention for eight months after driving while drunk, speeding off from a police checkpoint and ending a 51-year-old woman's life, spoke to the media for the first time. She spoke of receiving "amazing support" from friends and family, but being judged "quite harshly" by the public. Poor her.
To her credit, she did front up to her victim's family – some of whom say they forgave her. Her remorse appeared genuine, and she says she intends to speak against drunk-driving at top of the south schools.
This is all very well and admirable, but there can be no avoiding the fact that anyone choosing to try to out-run the police is taking the fast lane to disaster, not to mention acting in a criminally reckless and foolishly pointless manner. To have another person's death on one's conscience because of a stupid decision or a moment of panic must be a terrible burden. The victim's circle of family or friends are also left to carry a considerable weight, of course, through no fault of their own.
It has been fashionable to berate those police officers who set out in pursuit of drivers acting suspiciously or dangerously. There have been as many as four reviews of the police chase policy over the past six years, leading to tighter rules and guidelines, and yet another overhaul of the policy is currently underway and due to be in place before Christmas.
There have been times when individual officers have got it wrong and caused accidents – even when simply responding to someone else's inappropriate driving. However, there cannot be a policeman or woman in New Zealand who is unaware of the fact that setting off to chase a fleeing driver is a high-risk activity. It is a clear case of damned if they do and damned if they don't – but despite the high and growing toll, they cannot simply decide to ban such chases altogether.
Before Thursday night's crash – in fact, before the brief chase even started – the perpetrator was apparently clocked at 89kmh, or nearly twice the speed limit. Anyone travelling at that speed on inner-city streets is a menace whose actions pose an unacceptable risk to anyone unfortunate enough to get in their way. Critics of the police might ask themselves what they would do if they wore the blue uniform and were entrusted with maintaining law and order and upholding public safety. No officer signs up to scrape the remains of young morons off the road – even less, those of innocent third parties.
- © Fairfax NZ News
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When the police are aware who the driver is they are chasing and where they live--should they be allowed to put the public life at risk themselves?,their own rules say no,If you think police don't love the boredom of patrol turn into the excitement of a car chase then they don't know any cops personally,or the ones they do know are feeding them a line---The policy elsewhere in the world is to leave the small stuff alone,it's not worth risking the life of decent citizens.
"A 20-year-old Blenheim woman, sentenced last week to home detention for eight months after driving while drunk, speeding off from a police checkpoint and ending a 51-year-old woman's life"
8 months home detention for killing someone?
Maybe if those that ran got charged and found guilty of something much more serious than the initial offense, they would learn that it is better to pull over and accept the lesser punishment.
Time to get tough on these idiots, who more likely than not are also full of booze at the time of the offending. Taking away their licenses will not stop this behavior nor will fines, only serious jail time. I agree with Sarah that the police should not be constrained in their pursuits of these idiots.
Is this piece of opinion writing have an author?
Maybe if the police were allowed to do their job, chase and stop these idiots, then maybe the idiots in question might realize that the police would not give up and speeding away would help them one iota. These days people know they only have to drive at break neck speeds for long enough our poor hog-tied police will be forced to give up.
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It is always sad when another looses their life through another human being's error of judgement. However, driving any vehicle under the influence of drink and / or drugs, disqualified driver or failing to stopfor Police and causing another to loose their life they have no defence, nor can they justify such action. The Police following a fail to stop driver, it is vital that it be a fully qualified and advanced trained TRAFFIC Officer. The standard trained Police drivers do not have the necessary advanced skills in high speed and pursuit driving to know when to back off when matters become too dangerous and risks are not acceptable to either the Police driver his crew and all members of the general public. A factor to be avoided under all cicumstances is the "red mist" syndrome. I do know after 35+ years attending serious and fatal accidents as a Serious Crash Investigator the horrendous carnage and mutilation left behind is NEVER hardly witnessed by the offending driver. He is whisked away to a Police station if lucky to survive, later hearing verbally and in a sanitised version what the damage / injuries at the scene looked like. It is always the Emergency Services left with the aftermath, the indescribable sights, frantic efforts to maintain and stabilise anothers life on scene before the injured (and fatalities) are extricated from the vehicles within the golden hour and conveyed to an A& E department, or Mortuary. I wish sometimes these selfish people could just see the shock, anguish, and pain on the families when officers have to "call on" and tell loved one's a family member has been killed or seriously injured in a road collision. The hardest notification is always when a child hears about the death etc of one or in some cases both parents having lost their lives. I attach a link below of a book "Trauma 999 Emergency" I specifically wrote and authorised for it to be placed as an ebook on the below site. Sometimes the silly things that drivers do in hindering the Emergency services attending such incidents is described in the heading "One of the Bad ones's" That statement alone will re-echo in many EMS personnel the many Crashes they have had to deal with. The motto of any Class 1 Police Advanced Traffic Patrol Officer is "Drive to arrive and survive, and never be a statistic" The words of wisdom to advanced course recruits I used to teach was, "Formulate a driving plan, that which you can see, that which you cannot see, and that which may reasonably be expected to develop". The link below may be useful for any wishing to know the after effects of such incidents, and for the heartbroken loved one's left behind. Another fact is concentration aids a drivers observation! be prepared for the unexpected always!. Safe driving. http://www.trauma999.co.uk/trauma999.pdf