Four Corners: Oct 21
Two teens die tragically, police investigate but no one is held to account. Four Corners investigates.
- Published by David Knox
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On Four Corners next week, two teens die tragically, police investigate but no one is held to account. But what really happened?
“While They Were Sleeping” is reported by Caro Meldrum-Hanna, produced by Deb Masters and presented by Kerry O’Brien
It was meant to be fun.
An Australia Day paddock party, a reunion for a group of 19-year-old school friends before they went their separate ways, to university and work.
But something went very wrong.
By sunrise, two young people were dying, their families and friends devastated and a community was in shock.
At around 4:45am, a 17-year-old reversed his ute and ran over two sleeping teenagers, sharing a swag on the ground next to a stockyard fence. It was an accident, but the driver responsible had broken the law. He didn’t have a licence and had been drinking throughout the night.
To complicate matters, the driver was also the son of a long-serving local highway patrol officer, who was a colleague and friend of the investigating police.
For everyone concerned it was a shocking and conflicted situation. Over the following months, people began to ask questions about the police investigation. Even after a Coronial Inquest, many questions remain unanswered: what did police do on the morning of the incident? Why didn’t police take a statement from the driver, or try to interview him that morning? How did the driver blow zero when he was breathalysed? And why did police tell the public and the grieving parents that alcohol was not a factor – and never publically correct their mistake?
By reconstructing the events of that night, Four Corners investigates the police handling of the case, asking: why has no one been held to account?
Monday 21st October at 8.30pm on ABC1.
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4 Responses
If these teens were drunk and had run over the highway officer’s son i would bet my house the outcome wouldn’t be the same.
@DansDans.. what this synopsis doesn’t tell you is that the Coroner found that whilst this was a tragic accident, nothing criminal according to law occurred as road laws only apply on public roads and this accident was on private property.
Coroner’s finding only came out a couple of weeks ago.
Hey Pertinax, how confident are you that you dont need a licence to drive in a paddock?
Show some proof
He hasn’t broken the law. Road Rules apply on the Road, and Road Related Areas (shoulders, carparks etc). You don’t need a licence to drive in a paddock. The breathalyzer result was negative.
Alcohol was not a factor — he simply he didn’t know they were sleeping on the ground behind the ute where they couldn’t be seen while reversing. It would make no difference whether he was drunk or sober.
The only legal remedy would be a civil suit for negligence.
He had either sobered up by the time of the breath test, the test was faulty or the police rigged it. The police investigation is matter that should be investigated but don’t hold your breath. Unless there is CCTV footage of the police lying they usually get away with it.