here's another one. how could the police have moderated or handled this any differently? like the hamilton pursuit fatal a couple of months ago, this crash was always going to happen - it was only a matter of how and when....
Teen driver faces manslaughter charge
FRIDAY , 02 JANUARY 2004
A 15-year-old boy was killed after a teenage driver, allegedly three times over the legal breath-alcohol limit, sped away from police and crashed his car in the Bay of Plenty town of Waihi early today.
The 17-year-old driver was remanded on bail today to reappear in Waihi District Court on January 15.
Police said two cars were seen travelling the wrong way down a street about 1.30am this morning.
One car stopped but the other sped off.
Eastern Waikato acting area commander, acting inspector John Kelly, said police called the police northern communications centre in Auckland to tell it the car had sped off.
The car crashed 13 seconds after that call was made.
"The officer barely had time to pursue the car," Mr Kelly said.
"The car had failed to take a corner which resulted in a fence post smashing through the front windscreen of the car, killing the front seat passenger.
Police said the driver fled the scene but was found later by police.
Mr Kelly said police were not chasing the car at speed and the car crashed less than 1km from where the two vehicles were first seen.
"There was no police chase as such and it was just unfortunate that this driver chose to drive in a manner which resulted in the death of one of his passengers," Mr Kelly said in a statement.
Waikato district commander, Superintendent Kelvin Powell, said the death was an "absolute tragedy," but followed stupid and dangerous alcohol-fuelled incidents in Waikato in the last few days.
They included bottles thrown at police, people riding on the bonnets and boots of cars, brawls at Raglan and drunken motorcyclists riding without helmets.
"We had a person fall off the boot of a car in Whangamata and sustain serious injuries."
He said the incidents all pointed to a wider issue of youth access to alcohol and the lack of responsibility being shown by many drinkers.
Mr Powell said his message was not only to teenager drinkers but also to parents.
"It is disappointing my staff are having to deal with such a wide array of incidents or matters where the single contributing factor is alcohol and to my mind there is a lack of responsibility being shown."
The Police Complaints Authority (PCA), Judge Ian Borrin, had been notified he, along with police, would investigate the tragedy, Mr Powell said.
Eight people died last year either during or immediately after a police car chase.
Judge Borrin last month said his office was investigating several police chases in which people died during the chase or just after.
Police had initiated a review of their pursuits policy about four or five months ago and the PCA would contribute towards that where possible.
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Originally Posted by Coldkiwi
after all that will save the cost of the booze bus, and all the policing at these parties that get out of hand. Like a lot of other threads this is another example of socialist thinking 
if something is wrong it's the governments fault and they should fix it. Drinking at any age is about personal responsibility; and if you're old enough to drive, have sex, get married, even raise children, (or become a prostitute 
); then why shouldn't you be allowed to drink?
perhaps all police should be out of uniform too so as not to spook drivers into killing themselves and other people
I think someone driving 2 abreast the wrong way up a one way street before police intervention were likely to cause an accident sober or drunk. For me it's obvious who's at fault.
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