Last Saturday on the Hume Highway police ordered private vehicles to stop, forming a blockade to halt a vehicle which had been pursued south. The chase had been abandoned presumably for safety reasons, in favour of helicopter surveillance.
Police have used the term “rolling roadblock” in discussing the decision. Since the cars were stationary this not an accurate description.
Mr Rendina said he was in his ute with his partner and two young children when the speeding car crashed into them in the emergency lane.
“Police have pulled out from the emergency lane and stopped all vehicles heading south,” Mr Rendina told ABC 774 on Tuesday.
He said he felt like a “sitting duck” as the speeding car approached and then hit his vehicle.
For a motorist to not stop would itself have been an offence. The question arises – Do the police have unlimited powers to stop a motorist going about their lawful business or must there be an issue of safety or suspicion of an offence having been committed by the driver or an occupant? Can they lawfully put a family’s lives at risk in order to apprehend someone else?
Mr. Rendina and his family were, luckily, not physically injured, but they have been frightened, inconvenienced and have suffered loss.
A 19-year-old man, believed to be a learner driver, has been charged with theft of a motor car, two counts of theft, four charges of reckless conduct endangering life and traffic offences.
It appears to me that he was not the only one who engaged in reckless conduct endangering life.
All quotes are from 9News.
bobmcgee 