Page 796 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 8 March 2016
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kilometre fatality rate during police pursuits is 23,000 times higher than normal, and police vehicles are involved in crashes at about 300 times the level expected in normal traffic.
We should all reflect on this for a moment. Deaths related to police pursuits are a significant proportion of all road deaths in the ACT. In a jurisdiction where we are committed to a vision zero road safety philosophy, where we aim for zero deaths on the road, where our policies are supposed to acknowledge the fact that every life is precious and unique, it is incumbent upon us to address this significant area of road trauma. These figures highlight the fact that there are very real dangers posed by drivers failing to stop for police and support the need for a reduction in the number of police pursuits in the territory.
Police pursuits have been the subject of several coronial inquiries across Australia. In 2014 a New South Wales coroner described the practice of conducting high speed pursuits as a form of Russian roulette. The coroner also stated that although it is impossible to predict when someone will be killed or injured during a pursuit it is the inevitable result of police pursuits that someone will be.
A Victorian coroner who examined the deaths of teenagers in a pursuit in that state found that while police pursuit policies often incorporated risk management practices, they failed to properly consider the question of what would happen if the police did not stop the drivers of the cars they were pursuing.
Other jurisdictions that have introduced a similar limited police pursuit approach have seen dramatic improvements in road safety. Tasmania virtually eliminated deaths and injuries from police pursuits when it banned pursuits related to traffic offences and stolen cars in 1999. Queensland experienced a significant drop in injuries from pursuits following the introduction of its new policy in 2011. Twenty-three people were injured after pursuits in the year before the new policy was introduced, with only two people suffering injuries in the six months afterwards.
In Victoria there were 145 pursuits a month prior to the introduction of their new policy in 2015, with almost 80 per cent of those pursuits terminated by police because the risk was judged to be far too high. Pursuit numbers have unsurprisingly dropped significantly in that state to fewer than 10 a month since the new policy was introduced.
Some members of the community raise the question as to what will happen if the police do not stop the drivers of the vehicles they are pursuing. I noted Mr Hanson’s reaction to the revised pursuit policy was to immediately raise the fear that people would be committing crimes willy-nilly, that police would be powerless and there would be no deterrence. He has made the assertion again today, when he talked about people being able to operate with impunity. We can simply look at the evidence to see that this is not correct. It is an unfounded fear and it is disappointing to see Mr Hanson speak to perpetuate it.
For example, Victoria Police said that the percentage of people who evade police who are charged for their criminal behaviour has remained the same, at about 18 per cent.
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