Blame no use in immense tragedy

The region awoke on Sunday to the saddest possible news.

While most of us were still stirring from sleep, three people died a sudden and violent death on the roads.

In all, eight people lost their lives on the roads this weekend, but the enormity of this crash hit hard because it happened so close.

And it’s been singled out for another reason – it occurred following a police pursuit.

Even though the ultimate cause was little different than just about any other road fatality, catastrophic driver error, police pursuits will still come under intense scrutiny.

What begins as a routine action for an officer, pulling a car over to talk to its occupants, quickly spirals because of decisions clouded by fear and adrenaline.

So a driver flees and the police have seconds to act. They have to process an enormous amount of information at high-speed, recall training, constantly relay accurate information with comms in one ear and their pulse drumming in the other.

It’s not the wild west, all pursuits are closely monitored and tightly governed. If the police are called upon to abandon the pursuit they swiftly and willingly do so.

Police engage in pursuits almost routinely without incident. This was the outcome from nightmares.

When the probing begins the officers in that car will be put through the wringer. They will be forced to relive every moment and question every decision they made again and again.

If anyone thinks the police go easy on their own, they don’t.

So at the end of the day, even if they are exonerated, those officers will always carry the heavy weight of the decisions they made that morning. They will be plagued with what-ifs and the horrific vision of the crash and its aftermath.

An innocent woman died, a much-loved mother, sister, aunty, daughter. Caught up in something she had no part in or escape from. But, as hard as it is to swallow, the two men in the fleeing car were also partners, fathers, sons and brothers. They were loved and they will be missed.

So there are only losers and even after an extensive review it’s unlikely anything will change.

Police will continue to need the ability to uphold the law and part of that is holding fleeing drivers to account. Unless computers take the wheel of patrol cars we’ll always have a police force that relies on the discretion and judgement of its officers.

Their actions aren’t driven by hubris or arrogance. We have an incredibly professional and dedicated police force, they are simply doing their best to perform the duties they’ve sworn to uphold.

While there are always lessons to be learned, what we need to do now is stop and mourn the loss of three lives and tend to those caught in the shockwave.

If we get lost in knee-jerk rhetoric and fingerpointing it won’t help.