❓ A WA parliamentary question seeks clarification on the Minister for Road Safety's justification for using Road Trauma Trust Account funds for a police helicopter, referencing a coroner's report and requesting data on fatalities related to police pursuits and overall road trauma. The answer provides the requested information and refers to the Road Safety Commission website for further data.
AnsweredQoN 1393Legislative Council
QuestionView source ↗
I refer to the Minister for Road Safety's reference in the Legislative Assembly on 10 May to a 'recent coroner's report' as justification for her direction of the Road Safety Council to expend Road Trauma Trust Account funds on a replacement police helicopter, and I ask: (a) will the Minister please identify the Coroner's report that the Minister referred to on 10 May; (b) will the Minister please table a copy of the report and identify the specific findings or recommendations supporting her claim; (c) in relation to police pursuits, will the Minister please identify for each of the last 10 years the number of fatalities that have arisen from such pursuits in each year; (d) of those identified in (c), will the Minister, where possible, identify the nature of the involvement in the pursuit i.e. police driver, police passenger, pursued vehicle driver, pursued vehicle passenger, bystander, unrelated vehicle driver or passenger etc.; and (e) for each of the past 10 years, will the Minister please identify the number of fatalities and separately the number of serious injuries that have occurred on Western Australian roads?
AnswerView source ↗
Answered
14 August 2018
Responded by
Minister for Environment representing the Minister for Road Safety
Response time
6 days
(a)-(b)
The Western Australia Police Force advise that the State Coroner held an inquest into the deaths of Sean Duncan Barrett and Kuldeep Singh; Gavin Wayne Fryer; Jordan Damon Rundell; Kyra Marjorie Narrier; and Hassan El Bakdadi in March and April 2017. The deaths occurred following an attempted intercept or an evade police intercept driving incident (pursuit) and were investigated at one inquest to allow for consideration of the operation and effectiveness of the Western Australia Police Force Emergency Driving Policy and Guidelines.
The State Coroner released her findings from the joint inquest and made only one formal recommendation: (see tabled paper No. )
‘I recommend that the Police Airwing be allocated greater resources for the acquisition and operation of an additional helicopter and to this end, that consideration be given to allocating appropriate funding to the Western Australia Police Service.’
There have been forty two fatalities associated with vehicles evading police pursuit since July 2008, eight of which were in 2016/17. Of the forty two fatalities, twenty five were the driver of the pursued vehicle, ten were passengers in the pursued vehicle, three were drivers of unrelated vehicles, and four were passengers in unrelated vehicles. Since July 2008, 1892 people have died on WA roads, with a further 2542 seriously injured. Annual figures are available from the Road Safety Commission website.
Data is provided for crashes recorded as having occurred between 01 January 2008 and 05 July 2018. Figures include only crashes that meet the definition of a fatal or serious injury road crash. That is, a crash which:
The Western Australia Police Force advise that the State Coroner held an inquest into the deaths of Sean Duncan Barrett and Kuldeep Singh; Gavin Wayne Fryer; Jordan Damon Rundell; Kyra Marjorie Narrier; and Hassan El Bakdadi in March and April 2017. The deaths occurred following an attempted intercept or an evade police intercept driving incident (pursuit) and were investigated at one inquest to allow for consideration of the operation and effectiveness of the Western Australia Police Force Emergency Driving Policy and Guidelines.
The State Coroner released her findings from the joint inquest and made only one formal recommendation: (see tabled paper No. )
‘I recommend that the Police Airwing be allocated greater resources for the acquisition and operation of an additional helicopter and to this end, that consideration be given to allocating appropriate funding to the Western Australia Police Service.’
There have been forty two fatalities associated with vehicles evading police pursuit since July 2008, eight of which were in 2016/17. Of the forty two fatalities, twenty five were the driver of the pursued vehicle, ten were passengers in the pursued vehicle, three were drivers of unrelated vehicles, and four were passengers in unrelated vehicles. Since July 2008, 1892 people have died on WA roads, with a further 2542 seriously injured. Annual figures are available from the Road Safety Commission website.
Data is provided for crashes recorded as having occurred between 01 January 2008 and 05 July 2018. Figures include only crashes that meet the definition of a fatal or serious injury road crash. That is, a crash which:
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