Page 1266 - Week 04 - Thursday, 8 May 2014
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vehicle being pursued; 20 per cent, or 44 deaths, were other bystanders or road users; and 14 per cent, or six deaths, were police. The majority of fatal pursuits involved young males under the age of 25, and more than half of all fatal pursuit-related crashes occurred in urban environments between 8 pm and 4 am. In almost nine out of every 10 cases—that is, 88 per cent of all cases—the alleged offender driving the vehicle being pursued had consumed alcohol, drugs or a combination of both. Of the offences that resulted in a fatal pursuit, 88 per cent, or 143 deaths out of 162, were related to improper or unsafe operation of a motor vehicle.
Significantly, this paper also found that the ACT had a declining level of police pursuit. It showed a 44 per cent decrease in pursuits in the ACT from a peak in 2007 of 130 pursuits to 73 in 2011. This is reflective of changes in police approach and methodology during this time. Further, it found that the ACT consistently has the lowest rate of motor vehicle pursuit-related fatal crashes per l,000 pursuits in Australia.
Since reporting started on pursuit-related fatal crashes per 1,000 pursuits in 2006, the ACT recorded a zero result—that is, no fatal crashes as a result of pursuits—in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2011. The ACT recorded a result of 12.3 pursuit-related fatal crashes per 1,000 pursuits in 2010 due to one incident which resulted tragically in four fatalities when a stolen vehicle collided with another vehicle on Canberra Avenue. The vehicle which caused the collision had been stolen in New South Wales and was pursued into the ACT by New South Wales Police immediately prior to the collision. 2010 is the only year in which the ACT recorded a rate of motor vehicle pursuit-related crashes.
The paper also showed that the ACT has the highest average speed per pursuit at 146 kilometres an hour, above the national average of 129.8. It is unclear how the report calculates this figure, but the factors that may contribute to it could include the fact that the ACT road network is of a higher quality than other major Australian cities, with higher average travel speeds and lower levels of congestion, and the small sample size for the ACT which could allow a single pursuit data item to highly influence the ACT average.
Recent data in relation to pursuits undertaken by ACT Policing indicates that for the period 1 April 2013 to 31 March 2014 there were 105 police pursuits in the ACT, a decrease of 1.9 per cent compared to the 107 pursuits recorded for the previous year. Of the 105 police pursuits between 1 April 2013 and 31 March 2014, 61.9 or 65 per cent were terminated by police. This is a small decrease when compared to the 66.3 per cent or 71 pursuits terminated by police in the same reporting period in 2012-13.
For the same period just over 33 per cent of police pursuits resulted in the vehicle being intercepted, an increase in interceptions when compared to the 28.5 per cent intercepted in the previous year. The average length of time for a pursuit in the ACT was two minutes and 44 seconds, with approximately 43 per cent of pursuits lasting less than two minutes.
ACT Policing applies comprehensive guidelines on urgent duty driving and pursuits. It has in place rigorous governance systems for pursuits and is comfortable with existing guidelines and the balance of operational and public safety objectives.
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