Authority: Police could have stopped killer drunk driver

File photo.

Police could have stopped a drunk driver getting behind the wheel before he went on to kill three young people in Taranaki in 2005, the Independent Police Conduct Authority has found.

Surveillance set up to catch the driver was flawed, the report released today said.

Police officers failed to act responsibly when they decided not to go into a bar to seek the driver, wait close by his car, or have it immobilised, the authority said in a report released today.

Paul Cowper, 21, Rochelle Meads, 22, and Aaron Hurley, 22, were killed when Raymond Hansen crashed into their van on the Normanby Bridge, State Highway 3, in July 2005. The van's driver and another passenger were seriously injured.

Hansen later pleaded guilty to three charges of manslaughter, two of drink driving causing injury and one charge of dangerous driving.

He was sentenced to nine years' prison, with a non-parole period of five years.

About 30 minutes before the fatal crash Hansen had overtaken and been pursued by an unmarked police car.

The officers abandoned the chase after 30 seconds because of Hansen's dangerous driving - he reached speeds of up to 180km/h, police said.

Ten minutes later they found the car outside the Fat Cow bar in Hawera.

They did not know who the driver was and planned to apprehend him before he got back into his car.

They placed the car under surveillance using closed circuit TV cameras and officers parked in vehicles about 250m away.

Despite that, radio problems meant Hansen managed to get into his car and leave without being seen, going on to crash into the van on the Normanby Bridge, about 7km north of Hawera.

The authority found that Hansen was solely responsible for the fatal crash and that the police failings did not amount to misconduct or neglect of duty.

However, it found the officers could have made inquiries in the bar with the aim of at least trying to identify and arrest Hansen at that point.

They could also have used legal powers to have his vehicle immobilised or towed away, or could have waited closer to his vehicle to ensure he was apprehended before he got into it.

"By deciding not to take any of these actions to prevent Mr Hansen from driving, police failed to act responsibly," said authority chair Justice Lowell Goddard.

"This was not a situation of a suspected intoxicated driver. Rather, it was a situation of a driver who had demonstrably driven dangerously and could be arrested for that offence."

The alternative option taken - surveillance using CCTV - was flawed as it allowed for the possibility that Hansen would get back into his vehicle and drive, a possibility that eventuated with fatal consequences.

An internal police investigation also found fault with the surveillance option and the coroner, whose investigation was completed in June last year, also said the decision was unwise.

- NZPA