KEY POINTS:
"It is definitely the police's fault," claims the grandfather of a 13-year-old boy critically injured when he was struck by a pole knocked over on a pedestrian crossing by a police car giving chase.
Farhat Buksh was admitted to Auckland's Starship hospital on Friday and remains in a critical condition.
The police car that hit the crossing pole, which then landed on the Auckland teenager, had been chasing a driver who had refused to stop at an alcohol checkpoint. Police were travelling 70km/h in a 50km/h zone while pursuing the driver.
The boy's grandfather, who does not want be named, said the family was "very angry" with police about the accident, which he said should never have happened.
"The police are definitely wrong," he told the Herald on Sunday.
"He was almost off the road and then they hit him."
He said he believed witnesses who claimed the car was not directly pursuing a vehicle. "The police tried to cover it up," he said.
Farhat was one of two teenagers hospitalised with serious injuries in separate accidents involving police pursuits in the past 48 hours.
The accidents have left the police defending protocols around high-speed pursuits.
In the other accident on Friday, Taranaki teenager Cameron Gubb was admitted to hospital with a slashed face after an alleged drunk-driver careered into his car during a police pursuit. He received nine stitches to the wounds.
The Police Complaints Authority is investigating the circumstances around the two cases, but police insist they have "robust" policies in place for managing pursuits.
"The consequences in terms of human carnage, if you didn't try and stop dangerous drivers ... That would leave New Zealand in a state of anarchy," national road policing manager Superintendent Dave Cliff told the Herald on Sunday.
Despite Farhat undergoing two, four-hour-long surgeries on his injured head, his condition remains critical. His grandmother Nisha Ali - who the teenager lives with in Mt Albert - said she still feared for her grandson's life. "We don't know what to do. He's not conscious and we're very worried for him," she told the Herald on Sunday.
Witnesses to the accident said Farhat was walking across the crossing on Richardson Rd in Owairaka when an unmarked police car "came screaming around the corner with its lights flashing" from Owairaka Ave.
Inspector Rob Abbott said a police unit began to pursue a car after it avoided a routine checkpoint.
He said the police car tried to take evasive action to avoid driving through the pedestrian crossing but clipped a stationary vehicle that was waiting there. The car then spun out of control, hitting the pole.
"All staff involved are deeply distressed and shocked at this horrific course of events," he said.
Abbott said the officers involved would be interviewed as well as other witnesses to the incident.
Superintendent Dave Cliff, national road policing manager, said police policies around pursuits were robust and were based around "balancing risk against the need to stop people who are driving dangerously".
"Unfortunately when individual drivers decide not to stop, generally speaking it's because they are criminals or drunk or trying to evade apprehension."
However, police policies were "always" being looked at by the national professional driving panel, said Cliff.
Gubb, mean-while, was left with lacerations to his face after his car was rammed in New Plymouth at 11.15pm on Friday. Gubb, who was driving his friend Ashok Ramanathan, was taken to hospital and received nine stitches to his face. "Being in the wrong place at the wrong time, it's kind of not fair," he said.
Gubb said he guessed that the cuts would take about two weeks to properly heal.
Police allege Kenneth John Burns, 28, a cheesemaker from New Plymouth, failed to stop for a drink-driving patrol on Mill St and careered through a major city intersection.
Police gave chase but had slowed down to abandon the pursuit when Burns' white Commodore - 300m in front - allegedly drove through the Pendarves St/Eliot St intersection and collided with Gubbs' southbound Mitsubishi Mirage.
Burns appear- ed in New Plymouth District Court yesterday charged with dis-qualified driving, failing to stop for police and dangerous driving causing injury. He was remanded on bail until Tuesday and could not be rea- ched for comment yesterday.
