A police officer considered among a state’s best pursuit drivers reached speeds of about 150km/h before a devastating crash left an innocent motorist fighting for life in hospital, a top cop has revealed.
The 80-year-old man suffered critical injuries when the unmarked police vehicle collided with his Hyundai Accent as he turned in Perth’s southern suburbs on Monday morning.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Police car doing about 150km/h before slamming into innocent driver
Officers were mid-pursuit and on the tail of a driver who WA Police Commissioner Col Blanch alleged had an “extensive” criminal past when the crash blasted vehicle parts, including an engine, across the intersection of South St and Beasley Rd in Leeming.
Two rapid apprehension officers were taken to Fiona Stanley Hospital as a precaution.
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“The driver is a very experienced police officer, someone that not only is an instructor in pursuit driving here in Western Australia, but has been trained both in Scotland and the US in pursuit tactics and is probably one of our best drivers that we have, which shows how dangerous it can be on the roads because that’s how this ended,” Blanch said.
The innocent driver remains in an induced coma after surviving complex surgery at Royal Perth Hospital.
“Those two drivers are deeply saddened ... as our police force is, that we have an 80-year-old in hospital. It really does weigh heavily on our minds,” Blanch said.
“I want to make a very clear point that we should always blame the person who makes the decision to run away from the police.”
Blanch said the alleged getaway driver, who is now before the courts, had no driver’s licence, a lengthy criminal history, and was out on bail at the time of the crash.
WA’s top cop said “we do know there were speeds close to the accident of around 150km/h”.
A review into the pursuit will consider how visible the unmarked police car was, whether evasion protocols need adjusting, and how something like this can be prevented in the future.
“All three of those things will happen,” Blanch said.
“And I’m always happy to talk about the outcomes of those investigations.”
Almost every police officer in WA who is qualified to drive has a speed cap, while members of the rapid apprehension squad have “that next level of training”.
They continually conduct a “POET” risk assessment on the fly, weighing up several factors including alternatives to end the pursuit and the threat of the target.
“If (Police Air Wing and tyre deflation systems are) not available at that time, they will continue the pursuit,” Blanch said.
“It’s probably the most riskiest part of any pursuit. So the quicker we have Air Wing in the air, the quicker we can get our tyre deflation systems down, then that initial driver can back off.
“At that time, we had neither.”
Police arrested a 27-year-old man in Coogee after the allegedly-stolen Renault Koleos was dumped in a caravan park.
The accused, from Doubleview, was taken into custody on Cockburn Rd.
He was charged with failing to stop, reckless driving, stealing a car, having no authority to drive and possession of meth.
Earlier this week, WA Police Minister Reece Whitby said his thoughts were with the injured man and “it’s not my place now to start second-guessing the police” on an operational matter.
“The circumstances of this particular incident will need to be reviewed thoroughly and if there’s any learnings from it we’ll obviously take those onboard,” he said.