Deceased
Damien Wayne
Demographics
25y, male
Date of death
2004-05-18
Finding date
2005-11-11
Cause of death
blunt head trauma occasioned when the deceased was thrown from a motor vehicle he was driving
AI-generated summary
Damien Wayne, an Aboriginal male aged 25, died from blunt head trauma sustained during a motor vehicle accident while being pursued by Northern Territory Police. After failing to stop at a random breath testing station despite being significantly intoxicated (BAC 0.385%), police initiated a pursuit. Within Abbotts Camp, the senior constable drove across a playground area, a manoeuvre the deceased likely perceived as blocking his escape route. The deceased reversed, exited at excessive speed, lost control on South Terrace at approximately 119 km/h, and was thrown from the vehicle without wearing a seatbelt. While the pursuit was initially appropriate, the driving manoeuvre across the playground lacked proper risk assessment, particularly regarding presence of intoxicated persons and the deceased's perception of being trapped. The coroner identified deficiencies in pursuit training and policy familiarity among police officers. The short timeframe between exiting the camp and the crash made termination of pursuit unlikely to have prevented the death.
AI-generated summary and tagging — may contain inaccuracies; refer to original finding for legal purposes.
Specialties
Error types
Drugs involved
47y · Male·Acute myocardial infarction due to thrombotic occlusion of the right coronary ar…
Nick Panagiotopoulos, a 47-year-old man, suffered a fatal acute myocardial infarction (heart attack) on 16 October 2021 at home in Preston, Victoria. His family made five calls to Triple Zero (000) requesting emergency a…
58y · Male·Gunshot injury to the abdomen
David Gray, 58, deliberately induced police to shoot him as a means of suicide following undisclosed mental health deterioration. On 22 September 2023, he called police anonymously reporting an armed person, then present…
44y · Female·Hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy complicating cardiac arrest in the setting of p…
Elizabeth Ferris, a 44-year-old woman with schizoaffective disorder and polysubstance use disorder, died from hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy following cardiac arrest in the setting of presumed drug toxicity. She was fo…
Source and disclaimer
This page reproduces or summarises information from publicly available findings published by Australian coroners' courts. Coronial is an independent educational resource and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting on behalf of any coronial court or government body.
Content may be incomplete, reformatted, or summarised. All court orders for redaction and non-publication are respected; documents with technically defective redaction have been excluded from the database entirely. Always refer to the original court publication for the authoritative record.
Copyright in original materials remains with the relevant government jurisdiction. AI-generated summaries and tagging are for educational purposes only, may contain inaccuracies, and must not be treated as legal documents. We welcome feedback for correction —