Death at top speed in chaotic pursuit

By BRIDGET CARTER

It ended with the scream of a motorcycle, flaming wreckage and one person dead and another dying on a dark Northland highway.

Waipu Senior Constable Lindsay Walker had been nearing the end of his evening shift on Monday, May 12, about 8.45pm. He was driving south along State Highway 1 towards the Brynderwyn Hills.

In 14 years as a traffic officer and 10 in the police, he had been in hundreds of pursuits. As he drove south along the Waipu Straights, a Triumph motorcycle appeared heading north. He clocked it doing 147 km/h, pulled over and activated his flashing lights.

The bike slowed but then accelerated. Mr Walker did a u-turn and followed, radioing the police communications centre that he was in pursuit.

Mr Walker said he heard the communications centre tell him to abandon the pursuit if it became dangerous, but the motorcyclist had excellent control of his machine. The traffic was light. It was dark, but the roads were dry, and mostly straight and flat up ahead.

Around the Marsden Pt turnoff, he moved close enough to the motorcycle to read the registration plate. He was travelling at 195 km/h.

Along the Mata Straights he reached 205 km/h, travelling slightly faster than the motorcyclist. But around the corner, his brakes began to fail.

He told the communications centre: "I'm having a few brake problems ... As soon as the first available unit gets on, I'll drop off it and let somebody else have a crack."

Through the radio he heard that the "Delta" dog-handling unit was to take over at the Oakleigh petrol station. Mr Walker slowed, turned his flashing lights off, but carried on north in case he was needed.

The Delta unit was Whangarei Constable Hamish Chapman, driving a police wagon. As he drove south, he radioed to say he could take over from Mr Walker. He thought dogs might be needed to track the motorcyclist if he tried to escape on foot.

Mr Chapman parked at the Oakleigh service station. He pulled out when the motorcyclist passed him. The road ahead was bendy and no longer flat.

Mr Chapman was driving at about 170 km/h. At first he told the communications centre the motorcyclist's driving was okay. Then he said, "He's all over the road now, comms, he's on the wrong side of the road."

The communications centre told him to pull out of the chase. Mr Chapman replied, "Yeah, pulling out."

Within seconds, he asked, "Comms ... what's your reason for abandonment of the pursuit?"

The communications centre told him that he was on "the wrong side of the road ... not really on. Dangerous. Over".

Mr Chapman told the communications centre he thought the motorcyclist "must be carrying something".

He drove on to Whangarei. Later he would claim he had pulled out of the pursuit. But others who saw the chase said they saw him right behind the motorcycle with his flashing lights on, still chasing.

Farther north were two more police cars parked on the side of State Highway 1. The first was Constable Neil Pennington's patrol car. Mr Pennington told the communications centre he was stopped at Lookout Hill facing north. But he was actually up to 10km away from there, facing south.

Later Mr Pennington, who had lived in Whangarei for 34 years, said he was confused.

When the motorcyclist passed, Mr Pennington pulled out behind him. Witness accounts suggest that he could have been right behind Delta, chasing the motorcyclist. Mr Pennington said he was about 70m behind Delta, but maintained that they were both well back.

Farther north, parked at the Maungakaramea turnoff, were two young constables. They decided they would pull out in front of the motorcyclist to help to slow him down.

But the communications centre and the two constables, Doug Greaney and Leanne Wakelin, were talking past each other.

The constables told the communications centre they would "just wait for him and try and pull out in front".

But the communications centre radioed back: "Yeah, Roger. We want someone stationary all lit up. Hopefully we can slow this boy down and get him to try and turn around."

Before the motorcyclist went past, they pulled out, driving at about 130 km/h. The motorcyclist overtook their car and when the communications centre realised that the two constables had pulled out, they were instructed to abandon the pursuit.

Ms Wakelin, who was driving, said she braked and slowed right down. Mr Greaney forgot to turn off the flashing lights. But others who saw the chase said they did not see their car slow down at all, and that it was right behind the motorcyclist with Mr Chapman's car and, possibly, Mr Pennington's.

Seconds later, the police went around a corner. They saw smoke, flames, the wreckage of a motorcycle and a body in the road.

A little red Honda was in a ditch , its headlights shining up. The female driver was groaning and struggling to breathe.

The chase, which took about 15 minutes over 29km, ended with the motorcyclist Kuran Brunton, 29, of Pukekohe, dead.

Also killed was the driver of the Honda, 18-year-old Erin Burgess. She had been driving to Ruakaka with her boyfriend after visiting her dying grandfather at a Whangarei hospice.

Brunton had been riding an unwarranted, unregistered motorcycle. He had no licence and had taken cannabis and methamphetamine. Police found ammunition and a gun in his backpack. He had no firearms licence. A family member said he was a sharemilker on his way north for a job interview.

An internal police investigation cleared officers involved in the chase of any wrongdoing and found that police were still technically in pursuit because there was no time to comply with the pursuit stand-down requirements.

Nearly seven months after the chase, during a week-long coroner's court hearing, Jason Stewart gave evidence about what was going on that night back at the Northern Police Communications Centre in Auckland.

Mr Stewart was a constable controlling the chase under the supervision of Sergeant Mike Wilson and said it was the first time he had ever handled "anything like it".

Mr Wilson originally wanted the pursuit abandoned, but because of the road conditions and the experience of Mr Walker they decided to allow it to carry on.

It was a difficult situation. Spikes could not be used with a motorcycle because that would immediately cause the bike to crash.

"I recall asking Mike how we were going to bring it to a close," said Mr Stewart.

He said that when he asked Mr Chapman to pull out of the chase, he could tell he was reluctant to do so because there was a silence before he gave a response. "It is a period of silence that I had heard before. It is indicative of a unit not pleased to be told to abandon a pursuit."

In his findings released yesterday, coroner Max Atkins said the system failed badly. Mr Walker, the first officer in the chase, was undoubtedly acting correctly.

But when he was doing speeds of 205 km/h, and the communications centre said "probably a bit of a challenge for him doing that speed", he should have used his discretion to abandon the pursuit.

Mr Chapman, the second officer, was instructed to abandon the pursuit and did not respond until six seconds later - "a considerable delay".

Then, 17 seconds later, he queried the reason for abandoning the pursuit, an action which was inappropriate and blocked the radio waves.

"The pursuit policy surely requires immediate and unquestioning obedience or else the integrity of the system is at stake," said Mr Atkins. "A later debriefing would be the time to query reasons."

Mr Atkins briefly mentioned Mr Pennington, the officer who radioed a wrong location, and said he found it a strange mistake for such an experienced officer.

The exchange between the two young constables and the communications centre showed a serious communications failure. Mr Atkins said they started a second pursuit, which the communications centre did not want. The instruction was ambiguous to the extent that Mr Wilson at the centre lost control of the pursuit.

As for the evidence about speeds and the distance between vehicles, he said it was so conflicting that it was difficult to establish the exact situation.

Various neighbours said they saw one, two or three police cars from different positions.

"What is very clear is that the second pursuit, which should not have taken place, had not been properly abandoned."

Mr Atkins said the tragedy showed urgent need for change of attitude to the pursuit.

"The system clearly cannot work properly without total obedience and discipline."

There should be rules which obliged officers to abandon a pursuit if, for instance, a chase had exceeded 2km and was heading to a built-up area. Regular training, and strict supervision were needed, and orders to abandon a pursuit must be obeyed at once.


Herald Feature: Road safety