Inquest into the death of Annette Kunia
Deceased
Annette Kunia
Demographics
29y, female
Date of death
2002-02-01
Finding date
2003-07-31
Cause of death
severed spinal cord between the first and second cervical vertebrae sustained when thrown from vehicle during police pursuit
AI-generated summary
29-year-old Aboriginal woman died when thrown from a vehicle during a police pursuit that lasted 3-4 minutes over 9.2 km on Alice Springs Airport Road. She suffered a severed spinal cord between C1-C2 vertebrae, consistent with instantaneous death. The driver was intoxicated (0.172% BAC) and travelling approximately 127 km/h into a 60 km/h bend. The pursuing officers initiated the pursuit based on hearing a distressed cry from the vehicle, which was justified. However, critical information about the vehicle's occupants (11 people, many unrestrained), dangerous passing manoeuvre on the wrong side of the road, and excessive speeds was not communicated to supervising Communications. An experienced Queensland police traffic expert would have terminated the pursuit after the Maryvale bend. Improved radio communication protocols, training on information reporting, and pragmatic pursuit policies considering the specific risks of the local area (old unroadworthy vehicles, inexperienced drivers, intoxication prevalence) could have prevented this death.
AI-generated summary and tagging — may contain inaccuracies; refer to original finding for legal purposes.
Error types
Drugs involved
Clinical conditions
Procedures
Contributing factors
- driver intoxication (0.172% BAC)
- excessive speed (127 km/h in 60 km/h bend)
- failure to communicate critical information to supervising Communications officer
- failure to terminate pursuit when risk factors became apparent
- 11 occupants in vehicle with many unrestrained
- old unroadworthy vehicle with disconnected rear brakes
- dangerous overtaking manoeuvre
- inadequate supervision of junior police officer responsible for radio communication
Coroner's recommendations
- NT Police should place greater emphasis on training regarding the specific information that must be provided to Communications during pursuits
- NT Police should consider including more specific details on the importance of information provided during pursuits in the current NT draft Urgent Duty Driving Policy, similar to Queensland policy
- NT Police should reconsider their current systems to ensure that each police vehicle is regularly checked for correct safety and resuscitation equipment
- The Urgent Duty Driving Policy should be simplified to a short, blunt resume of expectations rather than multi-page wordy documents, with the premise that pursuits should be rare, exceptional and avoided if possible
- The policy should be pragmatic and reflect the specific risks in Alice Springs involving unlicensed Aboriginal drivers from remote communities, driving old unroadworthy vehicles, often affected by alcohol
- An ongoing review should occur of the need for dangerous high speed pursuits, the method of pursuits, supervision of pursuits, and training of police in pursuits
- The policy should account for cultural considerations such as Aboriginal people's potential fear of police interactions
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