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The husband of a Kaiapoi man who was killed in an accident with a teenage driver fleeing the police does not blame the police, despite an officer ruling that the pursuit was unjustified. However, the Commissioner for Children has repeatedly called on the police to stop pursuing when young people are involved.
Owen Fraser, left, with her husband Ken McCaul, who died on October 22, 2019 while driving to work when a teenage driver struck him and was pursued by police in Christchurch.
Photo: Supplied.
Kenneth McCaul, 64, was killed on October 22 last year when Jayden Breakwell, the then-fleeing car driver, was 17 years old and collided with McCaul’s car on his way to work early in the morning in Christchurch.
Breakwell and four other people with him in the fleeing car were also seriously injured in the accident.
Breakwell pleaded guilty to manslaughter and reckless driving resulting in injury, and was sentenced to two years and eight months in jail in December.
However, yesterday the Independent Police Authority said the four-and-a-half minute high-speed chase through central Christchurch should not have started, was poorly managed, should have been canceled at various points and the controller had no plans for how finish it safely.
McCaul’s husband, Owen Fraser, spoke with Morning report today, saying that he is comfortable with the decisions the police made and that the responsibility for the crash should rest solely with the driver’s feet.
“If it had stopped, it would have been fine. I don’t know why you always have to bother the police, and almost nothing is said about the driver.”
“What are you doing? Let the driver wander around town crazy? Or do you stop them?”
“I’m on the side of the police. They were doing their job. You can’t have people driving wildly around town and just doing what they like. If you can’t stop for the police when they tell you to stop, then it shouldn’t be in road “.
Fraser says he has not examined the details of the IPCA investigation, but would have liked Breakwell to receive a longer sentence for his actions.
Children’s Commissioner Judge Andrew Becroft has reiterated his calls for a ban on police pursuing young fleeing drivers.
Speaking to RNZ after the IPCA decision was released, he says the crash was a tragedy and he’s fed up with hearing about deaths from high-speed chases when there are more constructive ways to catch criminals.
“It’s clear from the police conduct authority report that it was avoidable … they can almost always catch and hold the young man to account the next morning; good police techniques can do that. After all the young men normally they drive home, the police can catch them quite easily.
“I used to think that it was the opposite, that they should always persecute, that they should not flout the law, but … the risks are too high; too many people are dying … innocent people, and too many children and the young people in cars are dying. “
He says adults also make poor decisions in the heat of the moment in car chases, and young drivers are even more prone to this.
“Children and young people make reckless, irresponsible and stupid decisions under pressure. And sometimes the sole purpose is to lure the police into pursuit.
“We can do much better, we have to make a change.”
