"Canberra News, Views and Opinion"
ACT Policing is investigating a collision in which two vehicles, including a police car, were extensively damaged and a woman conveyed to hospital.
Around 8.24am today (Tuesday, November 6), two officers were in a marked police car on routine patrol on Belconnen Way when they collided with a Holden Commodore at the intersection of Springvale Drive.
The driver and single occupant of the Commodore, a 24-year-old woman from Charnwood, was conveyed to hospital for observation. Both police officers later self-presented at hospital for assessment.
ACT Policing Collision Investigation and Reconstruction Team (CIRT) attended the scene and is investigating the incident.
Any witnesses to the collision who have not yet spoken to police are urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or via the website at www.act.crimestoppers.com.au.
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There’s nothing much wrong with the Belconnen Way – Springvale Dve intersection, but it seems to get way more than its share of crashes.
History says the gubbmint will chuck in a set of lights sometime; another set of lights is exactly what Belco Way doesn’t need :-\
According to the CT article, the police car was “within the speed limit”. I saw the damage to it, and there is no way on earth that happened at 60. My car didn’t look that bad after T-boning somebody at 80, and it’s the same model. Lets see how quick the CIRT team stop investigating this one, or the results are very well hidden.
Self presented at hospital ? What, as opposed to doing it by proxy? Who writes this s***?
Pork Hunt said :
Perhaps as opposed to being taken by ambulance? Just a guess but thats how I read it.
NoImRight said :
Yep, that’s exactly what it means.
Grimm said :
One car was “within the speed limit”. Doesn’t necessarily mean the other car was…
Grimm said :
Could be, if the police car was breaking (lowering the front end) and the other car wasn’t, or was even still accelerating (raising the front end).
Most of the damage looks to be the bonnet being pushed back from the front right corner and the bumper being pushed down all the way across. Plausible if the other car ran over the front of the cop car.
ScienceRules said :
i agree with pork hunt [aghast!] – this is still journo doublespeak sh1t. whyn’t just say they presented at hospital later? does it matter how they got there? (and rational audiences would assume not by mabo if it was ‘later’) i bet they decamped in a southerly direction having assisted senior police with their inquiries…
Jungle Jim said :
Ouch. The word you want is ‘braking’… http://www.thefreedictionary.com/braking
astrojax said :
So your concern is adding the word “self” to the sentence? Thats too wordy now?
Very strange looking damage. The way it’s been flattened and the bonnet peeled up and back looks more like what would happen if you rear end a truck.
Not really surprising, the Police drive like crap in this city.
Jungle Jim said :
I drove right past it. Looked to me like the cop car was travelling down belco way towards Kippax, and the other car had come from the opposite direction and gone to turn right off belco way up to hawker shops. The damage on the other car was way too far back for it to have run over the front of the cop car. The damage to the drivers side of the cop car is also pretty horrible. Like I said, I t-boned a car who pulled out on me, and I was doing 80. Hit the other car in about the same spot the damage was on this one, and did nowhere near that much damage to my car. There’s no way in hell this happened at 60.
astrojax said :
Probably took a while to scrub the extra length off their skid marks with a wire brush before the investigation commenced.
It’s a bit hard to tell given we can’t see the damage to the right hand side but i just got the radar gun out and it swears that it was a 50 km/h impact.
Grimm said :
But the marks on the road would still be visible…
This almost happened me a few months ago. A police car failed to give way to me on Johnson Drive as they were pulling out of Clift Cres.
Luckily I was able to anticipate it & brake in time. I beeped at them & was given a dirty look.
I understand we all make mistakes but a courtesy wave or some acknowledgement would have been nice. I’m sure they’d have booked me had the situation been reversed.
Pork Hunt said :
ABS=only undies skidmarks!
Moon landing was faked too.
bugmenot said :
I concede that I didn’t proof my post adequately. Thanks for the lesson.
NoImRight said :
yes, i guess so – high falutin way of just saying ‘presented’, as if ‘self presented’ is somehow significant. this is the riot act – i’m obliged to be pedantic and picky and irate. now, just don’t start me on the journo predeliction for people – usually pollies – doing ‘backflips’ on issues!
bundah said :
That’s what I was talking about, the undies.
astrojax said :
Jungle Jim said :
no, you were right, the police car is definitely broken.
Do they breath test the Police officer driver on the spot of the accident, as they do all other crash drivers?
bugmenot said :
While you’re correct in one sense, it’s also self evident that the police car was indeed breaking. Just take a look at that pic…
Grimm said :
Yeah but it wasn’t a T-bone collision, presuming that the cops were heading up belco way in the Kippax/Holt/Higgins direction, she must have been on belco way heading toward the city and turned off toward hawker shops without giving way – so *her* speed is very relevant. If she was travelling at 40 or so it’s quite possible that both cars were within the speed limit.
I mean it’s quite possible the cops were speeding but I don’t think there’s any particular reason to believe that they were given the limited information we have here.
cranky said :
No. Generally one cop hands another a brown paper bag full of cash and/ or coke so nothing happens and the whole incident is forgotten.
It’s also helpful as it allows the cop who crashed to get the body of the whistleblower out of the boot quickly and get back to the pub, where they can get hammered in uniform again and look for another innocent civilian to play demolition derby with.
That’s if they’ve got enough time after sleeping with all the local prossies.
astrojax said :
While we’re being pedantic,
“assume not by mabo”
Is that like, the vibe, of presenting at hospital?
Grimm said :
That’s it then, case closed! Book the police for speeding, and while you’re at it pay compensation to the other driver for failing to give way – it obviously wasn’t their fault, because of random internet precedents, and speculation, and probably science, or aliens.
[csi miami mode]
“there was a serious accident, and the police were involved”
“well, it looks like their morning took *puts on sunglasses* a turn for the worse”
YEEEAAAHHH!
[/csi miami mode]
Grimm said :
That quotation alone makes me suspicious of the speed said vehicle was traveling.
That intersection has clear visibility lines in both directions with no obstructions. It doesn’t really matter what speed the police car was traveling from the description of the incident the other car didn’t give way.
Grimm, with your obvious experience in collision reconstruction ACT Police have a job for you and if as you say the Police car was speeding and that caused the collision then you are justifying all the govt reasoning behind speed cameras.