Carmen Hall: Drivers who flee the police are idiots

Police plea for fleeing drivers in the Bay of Plenty to stop. Photo / File

Opinion

Police chases are back in the news again and this time around it is the police themselves facing the backlash. It was reported yesterday that the Bay of Plenty was one of New Zealand's leading spots for pursuits resulting in serious injury crashes last year.

The region ranked first equal with Counties Manukau, after 11 serious injury cases in 2019.

But more alarming to me is the fact Rotorua area commander Inspector Phillip Taikato said pursuits were becoming more and more common and offenders were starting to ram police cars during those pursuits - while some were trying to run down police officers.

It is a controversial issue, especially when police have been in the spotlight in the past and it was revealed that nationally, from January 2008 to January 2019, there were more than 30,000 pursuits, hundreds of crashes and 79 deaths.

Police Minister Stuart Nash is concerned by the rising number of fatalities, calling them a tragedy.

"The last thing police want to see is people killed on the roads – it doesn't matter what the circumstances," he has been reported as saying.

Police abandon pursuits when they believe they are not in the best interest of the safety of the community or society in general, he said.

Police signal for about 3.5 million drivers to stop annually, meaning those who flee equated to roughly 0.1 per cent in terms of driver behaviour.

Inspector Taikato says an Eastern Bay of Plenty police officer was left with lifelong injuries after being deliberately struck by a fleeing driver.

That officer is lucky to be alive and Taikato said sooner or later someone else is "going to be killed by such selfish, reckless and cowardly behaviour".

I agree, and it is beyond me why some people would flee police in the first place. Statistics show some of those drivers are young or driving under the influence so their judgment is impaired but that is still no excuse.

Meanwhile, drivers who think it's ok to try and stop the wheels of justice by taking out the police need to face tough consequences, including longer prison sentences and periods of disqualification.

The roads are dangerous enough without idiots who think they are above the law.