Teen Death During High-Speed Chase Highlights Dangers of Police Pursuits

A 17-year-old boy died as the car he was a passenger in crashed and rolled on Weir Road in the northwestern NSW regional town of Bourke at 1.30 am last Friday 28 February, which was caused by a 45-minute-long NSW police pursuit of the allegedly stolen vehicle, with the resulting fatality yet again highlighting the futility of high speed chases.

Three other teenagers in the car, aged 13, 14 and 16, were all hospitalised. Orana Mid-Western Police District officers first spotted the teens 15 kilometres east of the central NSW town of Nyngan at 12.08 am in the stolen vehicle and then took chase.

The initial pursuit was terminated a short time later, however the 100-kilometre-long chase that ended in the teenage death commenced at 12.45 am in the town of Coolabah.

“Police deployed two sets of road spikes on Mitchell Highway, Coolabah, and Sydney Road, Bourke,” NSW Police News reported that same day. “The vehicle continued through the township of Bourke, before it crashed and rolled.”

The crash which occurred early morning on 28 February was the subject of parliamentary scrutiny later that same day, when it was raised with NSW attorney general Michael Daley, as proof that the Minns government bail refusal crackdown on children who break the law is failing.

But the broader issue regarding the viability of NSW police officers chasing lawbreakers in vehicles at high speed on public roads to their death, the risk this poses to other members of the community, and the reluctance of state law enforcement to consider alternatives to pursuit, goes back a decade now.

Old habits die hard

The NSW Police Force Annual Report 2023-24 outlines that of the 1,567 police pursuits that NSW police pursued out of a total 4,087 chases commenced over the 12 months to June 2024, 343 of them resulted in collisions, with 2 resulting deaths, along with 27 injuries.

Four hundred and eighteen police pursuits, or 10 percent of those commenced, over 2023-24 were carried out as a result of criminal matters, while 2,073 were traffic law related, another 985 were undertaken in relation to a stolen car and 1,008 were taken in pursuit of a driver who’d failed to stop for random breath testing (RBT) for alcohol.

The 2014 coronial inquest into the four-minute-long fatal police pursuit of 21-year-old Hamish Raj on a motorbike in Sydney’s Kogarah in December 2011 called for a number of recommendations, which included that NSW police update its Safe Driving Policy, along with the suggestion that the NSWPF begins collating the statistics relating to police pursuits and publishing them in its annual report.

This reporting practice commenced in relation to the year 2015-16, and over the eight years since, there has been a 86 percent increase in the number of police pursuits commenced, with a corresponding 6 percent decrease in the number of pursuits that aren’t terminated after they’ve begun, and there’s also been a 49 percent increase in the number of pursuits ending in collision.

The elusive safe driving policy

Civil Liberties Australia has been calling for a ban on police pursuits of stolen cars or drivers suspected of being under the influence of drugs or alcohol for a decade now.

Indeed, the rights organisation has long condemned the practice of police chasing vehicles at high speed as it not only risks the lives of those involved but they’re also a threat to bystanders, and it further considers that a national policy on police pursuits is needed.

As in the recent case in Bourke, four teenagers driving around in a stolen car are more likely to cause death to themselves or onlookers if a police vehicle is pursuing them at high speed.

Redfern Legal Centre senior police accountability lawyer Samantha Lee pointed out in the wake of the police pursuit death of Dunghutti teen Jai Wright in February 2022, that despite 2014 coronial calls for the force to review its Safe Driving Policy, and numerous queries about whether an updated version has been produced, NSW police continued to shroud its driving policy in secrecy.

However, this changed last year when a March 2024 NSW Police Force Safe Driving Policy Statement appeared online, which outlines that only certified officers who’ve been “trained and assessed to the requisite standard” can “engage in urgent duty and pursuits”.

“Pursuits may be undertaken by police when a person who has been directed to stop their motor vehicle, fails to do so in contravention of that direction and continues to attempt to evade police,” states the NSW Police Safe Driving Policy Statement. “Engaging police in a pursuit is a serious offence and carries a term of imprisonment of up to 5 years.”

“Only sworn police officers who have been certified to drive to the requisite standard and who are driving an appropriate category vehicle may engage in a pursuit,” the document continues. “There is rigorous policy overseeing and governing police pursuits.”

Following a police pursuit, officers involved then conduct a debrief with a senior officer, as a three-tier assessment process gets underway, which involves feedback from the superior officer being later followed up by the scrutiny of a Local Safe Driver Panel, which can also make recommendations.

The third tier then involves the NSW State Pursuit Management Committee assessing whether the incident involved any actions that fall outside of the NSW Police Safe Driving Response and Operations Guidelines.

The statement further sets out that officers contemplating a police pursuit need to consider dangers to “members of the public, all other road users and police”, as well as “weather, traffic and road conditions”, time of the day and the week and any other risk factors.

So, despite Tasmania having banned high speed pursuits for minor offences in 1999, with Queensland following suit in 2012, and Victoria police having updated their policy in 2015, so that police pursuits only occur in exceptional circumstances, NSW police appear to consider high speed chases an essential item in its toolbox.

The offence of police pursuit

Section 51B of the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) contains the offence of police pursuit, which was enacted into law in March 2010, following the death of 19-month-old Skye Sassine, which occurred when William Ngati crashed into the back of her parents’ car, as a result of a police pursuit on New Year’s Eve 2009.

The crime of police pursuit results in a first-time offender facing up to 3 years prison, or a second or subsequent offence resulting in up to 5 years gaol time, and it involves an offender “who knows, ought reasonably to know or has reasonable grounds to suspect” that police are in pursuit of them then failing to stop and rather, driving “recklessly or at a speed” or in a dangerous manner.

Then NSW deputy state coroner Paul MacMahon condemned the NSW police officers involved, as he asserted that “there was no evidence to suggest that the action of the police officers directly caused the collision that resulted in Skye’s death”, however they had shown “utter disregard” for the terms of the elusive NSW Police Safe Driving Policy.

Failed policies mounting

NSW Liberal MLC Susan Carter raised the 28 February Bourke fatality caused by a police pursuit during NSW parliament budget estimates that same day, and she suggested to NSW attorney general Michael Daley that the fatal accident is proof that the government’s controversial section 22C of the Bail Act 2013 (NSW) bail refusal law is failing.

The April 2024 enacted law requires magistrates to refuse bail to 14- to 17-year-olds, who are charged with committing a serious break and enter or motor theft offence while on bail for another offence of that type, unless the judicial officer has a “high degree of confidence the young person will not commit a serious indictable offence while on bail”.

Daley countered Carter’s assertion stating that over April to December last year, 195 youths coming before the courts in relation to a crime relevant to the section 22C law resulted in 80 percent of them being bail refused, and as the Aboriginal Legal Service NSW/ACT has pointed out 88 percent of children affected by the new law have been First Nations kids.

However, while the questions put to the state’s chief lawmaker queried whether section 22C is having a deterrent effect on motor vehicle theft in this state, neither major party politician thought to question whether NSW police should have conducted a 45-minute-long high speed pursuit of a group of children in a car, most of whom weren’t old enough to hold a valid NSW drivers licence.