Police cleared over fatal crash

Police have been cleared of wrongdoing in the pursuit of a serial drunk driver who sped through a red light and killed two people in Christchurch.

Phillip Bannan was over the legal blood alcohol limit and driving at nearly 90km/h on a suburban street when he fled from police on August 26 last year.

He drove his unwarranted and unregistered vehicle through two red lights before crashing into the side of another car, killing its 73-year-old driver Norman Fitt and his 67-year-old passenger, Deidre Jordan.

A judge described Bannan as "singularly selfish" in sentencing him to nine years jail for manslaughter in December.

An Independent Police Conduct Authority report released this afternoon said two officers, referred to as Officer A and Officer B, acted legally and justifiably in pursuing Mr Bannan.

They decided to pull him over after clocking his car driving 89km/h in a 50km/h zone, the report said.

Mr Bannan accelerated away, swerving through traffic and speeding through intersections, it said.

The officers saw he was taking "extreme risks" and were in the process of abandoning the pursuit when he sped through a red light at Gloucester Street, crashing into the side of the Daihatsu Terios driven by Mr Fitt.

In her report, Justice Lowell Goddard noted the pursuit lasted 30 seconds and occurred over a distance of 500m.

The police driver, Officer A, had decided to abandon the pursuit but did not have time to reduce his car's speed to 50km/h and deactivate its warning lights and siren before the fatal crash occurred, the report said.

"In the circumstances, Officers A and B had a duty to take steps to apprehend the driver of the Ford and were justified under law and Police policy in commencing the pursuit. The officers had begun the process of abandoning the pursuit when the crash occurred," the report said.

"The Authority has formed the opinion that none of the actions of the officers involved were contrary to law, unreasonable, unjustified, unfair or undesirable."

No action against the two officers involved in the pursuit was recommended.