By PATRICK GOWER and NZPA
Formula One drivers will soon be advising police about how to chase criminals without crashing.
Police Commissioner Rob Robinson revealed the initiative at Parliament's law and order select committee following criticism after a police dog van crashed into the front of an Otara family's home during a recent pursuit. A couple in bed narrowly missed being cut by hundreds of glass shards.
"Within this month I'm meeting with a minister of the Crown and some such people from the community who believe they can provide advice to me and to others in regard to driver training.
"They include experienced Formula One drivers - people who are professionals in that area."
In the past five years, nearly 50 car crashes involving police have resulted in serious injuries and 10 deaths.
Last night, former New Zealand Formula One racer Chris Amon said that while the motor racing fraternity could offer plenty of advice to the police, the problem was much more deep-seated.
"You can't learn how to drive at high speed in one day. It takes weeks to get the basic skills needed to drive at high speed," he told the Herald.
"What police really need is to be able to deal with the emotional aspects of driving fast - when they get a callout, it might just be to a burglary, so they need to put their driving into perspective."
Mr Amon, who has been consulted on previous reviews of police driver training, said New Zealand was not alone in its problems with police car chases.
"All over the world there is a need for police to make their driving in high-pressure situationsan automatic response rather than an emotional one. And if you have ever been in a police car with its sirens going, stuff blurting out over the radio, and you know you've got to get somewhere fast, you will realise just how hard driving under that pressure is."
Mr Robinson said pursuit training and urgent duty driving had both been reviewed as a result of recent incidents "that are very public and very worrisome."
"The police executive and I have moved within the last few weeks to clearly communicate to our staff the parameters that we believe are reasonable for urgent duty driving.
"We have set a corridor of 30km above the speed limit for that area as being a corridor that they can operate in in responding to an urgent duty incident or event."
Pursuit training had passed previous audits, he said. "However, we should never be complacent and there are potential deliverers of enhanced driver training within the community who continue to come forward."
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