Police pursuit: car smashes into truck

Two people have been taken to hospital with neck injuries after a high-speed police pursuit in Port Macquarie on the mid-north coast today.

It is understood a grey Holden was travelling between 160kmh and 170kmh shortly before crashing into a truck on the Pacific Highway, north of Oxley Highway, after a 10-minute chase which began at 11.20am.

A NSW Ambulance spokesman said two people were taken from the crash scene in the suburb of Fernbank Creek to Port Macquarie Hospital complaining of neck pain, but the injuries were not considered serious.

A Port Macquarie police spokeswoman said two people had been arrested after the pursuit, which began on the Pacific Highway.

She was unaware of what prompted officers to give chase, but "the vehicle was circulated as one to keep an eye out for".

Related:

Why you got stuck: Operation Avert
Police today revealed why thousands were stuck for more than four hours in a Sydney traffic jam yesterday while a shot was fired during a chase. It was all part of Operation Avert, a major three-day police action that led to 460 arrests, including more than 200 foroutstanding warrants and 55 for breach of bail. Some 640 charges were laid.

Why you got stuck: Operation Avert

Police today revealed why thousands were stuck for more than four hours in a Sydney traffic jam yesterday while a shot was fired during a chase.

It was all part of Operation Avert, a major three-day police action that led to 460 arrests, including more than 200 for outstanding warrants and 55 for breach of bail. Some 640 charges were laid.

A police officer fired at a stolen four-wheel-drive because its occupants drove towards a fellow policeman, police said today.

The shot was fired at the beginning of the pursuit through Redfern and down Parramatta Road yesterday, which involved up to 30 police cars, several undercover vehicles and a police helicopter.

Police said they spotted the allegedly stolen vehicle in the Redfern area during Operation Avert, a state-wide crackdown on outstanding offenders.

A check showed it had been linked to several unsolved armed robberies.

Police followed it and stopped it in Cleveland Street, Redfern. An officer approached and tried to speak to the driver. But the driver motored towards him, so another officer, fearing for his colleague's safety, fired a shot.

The pursuit ended in Strathfield, where it hit a stationary car. Three men tried to run. Two were arrested nearby, and the third was arrested during a raid on a unit block by heavily armed officers several hours later.

It left westbound motorists stuck in gridlock at peak hour.

Peak-hour chase suspect 'may sue police'
An unlicensed driver who is alleged to have led police on a chase through Sydney's inner west last night has told a court he is considering legal action against the police. It is alleged 27-year-old Mustafa Dagdanasa was at the wheel of a four-wheel drive that led police on a chase through rush-hour traffic. Dagdanasa is facing a number of charges, including stealing a vehicle, driving without a licence, dangerous driving and using a vehicle to avoid being caught. The prosecution opposed bail, saying his actions could have caused serious injury or death to the police chasing him. Dagdanasa has told Burwood Local Court he was uninvolved and was walking down Parramatta Road after a meal when several police threw him to the ground, punched, kicked and arrested him. He asked the court to order that photographs be taken of his injuries but was told he would have to arrange that through his lawyer. Dagdanasa has been refused bail until his legal representative can attend court.

Police pursuit: repeat offender jailed over fatal smash

A man has been jailed for at least five years for killing a State Emergency Service volunteer in a fatal road smash at Wingfield in Adelaide a year ago.

The offender was in a stolen car and being chased by police when the crash happened.

Denis Vlado Dundovic, of Renown Park, was driving at more than 160 kilometres per hour, more than double the speed limit.

There were two young women passengers in the car and it had no headlights on when Dundovic ploughed into the car of 30-year-old Peter Godfrey, who died at the scene.

Dundovic was under the influence of methylamphetamines.

He was on parole after being in jail three times in the previous three years - once for almost killing a car load of people during another police chase.

District Court Judge Steven Millsteed said it was not a momentary or impulsive crime and he described Dundovic's actions as outrageous.

REOPEN THE TJ ENQUIRY!

TJ died 4 years ago. His bike was rammed by a Redfern police vehicle, driven by then, Constable Michael Hollingsworth. As a result, he was impaled on the metal spiked fence.

Proper medical practices were not followed by the police and he died in hospital the next day. If standard medical practices were followed, TJ would probably be alive today.

As is the norm in all police-initiated Black Deaths in Custody, the cover up started immediately. Every one was involved, from the then Premier, Bob Carr and to the Police Commissioner. Even the State Coroner did his bit by placing very tight conditions on what could be presented to him in the ‘manufactured’ police Brief of Evidence. The Hickey Family’s legal team, forced upon the Family, blocked some witnesses, did not give proper legal representation to TJ’s Family, and stopped, or agreed to, some crucial evidence not being presented in Court. Whilst the police were exonerated, despite their admitted collusion of evidence, those Aborigines who were provoked by the Redfern Police and vented their collective anger and grief, as was to happen on Palm Island, Qld, at the death in custody of Mulrunji Doomadgee by Snr. Sgt. Christopher Hurley in November, 2004, were found guilty and gaoled. Another corrupt whitewash had occurred.

On Palm Island, Snr Sgt Christopher Hurley. in the Police Station, assaulted Mulrunji so badly that he died shortly after on the cell floor, in great pain arising from his injuries that included 4 broken ribs and a split liver. As usual, in these cases, the cover up started immediately with police, working friends of Hurley, ‘investigating’ the circumstances. But something went very wrong for the Qld. Government and their police. The Palm Island Community, and the solidarity of the Brisbane and Queensland Communities, firstly, and then later from all around Australia, demanded JUSTICE.

Two Coroners, a long enquiry, Government, police and DPP pressure that was resisted, meant the cover-up failed. The acting State Coroner, Ms. Christine Clements, recommended that Hurley face Court on charges of killing Mulrunji. Still the corrupt forces of injustice kept working. The DPP ‘found that Hurley had no case to answer’. And again Aborigines from Queensland and their Supporters around the Nation came out demanding JUSTICE. The then Premier, Peter Beattie, was forced to accept the outcome of this struggle and a new enquiry by Sir Laurence Street recommended the charges against Hurley be reinstated. But eventually, when the Trial was held, “White Australian Justice” was at work and Hurley was acquitted by a racially picked jury.

THE IMPUNITY AND INJUSTICE, AS FAR AS POLICE DEATHS IN CUSTODY IS CONCERNED, FOR TJ, MULRUNJI AND SO MANY OTHERS WAS CONFIRMED ONCE MORE.

Too many koori kids are dying at the hands of the ‘law’

Whose Son, Brother, Sister, Cousin, Uncle, Aunt will die this year
at the hands of the police?

Protest to put a stop to the deaths and get true justice for Koori kids