Inquest into the death of Bryce Doyle
Deceased
Bryce James Doyle
Demographics
22y, male
Date of death
2016-11-08
Finding date
2019-02-21
Cause of death
Massive injuries to the head and body, including severe closed head injuries, skull fracture and spinal injuries
AI-generated summary
A 22-year-old male driver died when his vehicle struck a tree while attempting to evade a police pursuit on the Mitchell Highway near Narromine, NSW. The driver was speeding at 142 km/h in a 110 km/h zone when detected by highway patrol. Senior Constable Collier initiated a high-speed pursuit reaching 204 km/h, remaining 1.2 km behind the vehicle. The driver lost control entering an intersection at high speed and collided with a tree, sustaining fatal head and spinal injuries. Toxicology revealed methylamphetamine in the driver's system, likely impairing driving. The coroner found the officer was technically in pursuit but failed to notify radio as required by NSW Police Safe Driving Policy. The coroner identified policy ambiguity regarding pursuit definitions as a contributing factor and recommended clarification to prevent similar incidents.
AI-generated summary and tagging — may contain inaccuracies; refer to original finding for legal purposes.
Error types
Drugs involved
Contributing factors
- High-speed police pursuit on open road
- Officer failure to notify radio of pursuit as required by Safe Driving Policy
- Policy ambiguity regarding definition of pursuit
- Methylamphetamine intoxication impairing driver judgment and risk assessment
- Driver speeding and attempting to evade police
- Inadequate distance between police vehicle and pursued vehicle affecting officer perception
Coroner's recommendations
- Combine the first two paragraphs of sections 7-1 and 7-1-1 of the NSW Police Safe Driving Policy Pursuit Guidelines to avoid doubt as to what constitutes a 'pursuit'
- Include a section in the Pursuit Guidelines to advise officers that if they are in doubt as to whether an offending vehicle has ignored a direction to stop, they should inform the DOI (Duty Operations Inspector) or the VKG shift coordinator of their actions and provide information outlined in paragraph 7-5-1
Full text
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