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Being a cynical old bugger, I thought I was well beyond being gob smacked, but a couple of days after the Press article that inspired last month’s article, came this jaw dropping news item. To say that the news item raises a few serious questions would have to be the understatement of the year.
“POLICE TO GET DRIVING RATING SOON.”
by Dave Courtney in The Christchurch Press.
Apparently Police Officers are soon to find out if they are Gold, Silver or Bronze drivers, under the recently established professional police driver program. The PPDP was apparently established after Police chase tactics were brought into question, after ten deaths last year during or immediately after, a police pursuit.
Under PPDP, the driving skills of all sworn Police Officers and about 2000 non sworn Officers will be ranked as bronze, silver and gold.
The ranking will apparently determine what driving duties an Officer can undertake. Officers with bronze stars will not be able to participate in pursuits.
Do any of these 2000 non-sworn Police Officers participate in pursuits?
Have any of these 2000 non-sworn Police Officers participated in a pursuit that has lead to a death?
The national road policing manager, Superintendent Steve Fitzgerald said the programe was designed to improve overall safety, pursuit and “urgent duty driving” policies.
Does a footy test constitute “Urgent duty driving”?
After the initial round of assessments conducted by twelve new police driving assessors, drivers will be tested every two to three years and those that did not come up to the gold standard will receive training to improve their skills.
Apparently Superintendent Steve Fitzgerald said that the PPDP programe was based on overseas police training systems, and that those countries with a training programe had experienced an improvement in driver safety and that he expected, over time, to see the same thing happen here.
What? Don’t frontline Police Officers that conduct high speed pursuits, receive intensive driver training already?
And if not: Why not?
That the police are about to instigate comprehensive training and assessment of all their drivers is to be highly commended. What truly stuns me is that this policy is not already well and truly in place.
Have not the New Zealand police been involved in high speed pursuits for more than eighty years?
The New Zealand transport industry has been involved in competency based training and assessment for more than a decade and the results are a testament to all those involved, with truck related accidents falling yearly.
Will this new training and assessment policy, also include assessing a driver’s ability to make sound commonsense decisions, while under the influence of adrenaline and stress?
People respond to the effects of adrenaline in dozens of different ways and police officers are only human. I have seen normally sane rational human beings, act like blithering idiots when pumped on this natural drug. Every emergency driver I have ever spoken to has commented on the powerful effects of this drug, when the bells start ringing.
The desire to catch the “bad guy” must surely have the same effect.
The drivers involved in the footy test incident, were obviously highly skilled to be able to complete a drive like that, in the time alleged, this surely proves that they are gold medal quality.
That nobody within the vehicles including their passenger, could see the obvious extreme risk to the rest of the public and that missing a footy test was not worth the potential consequences of their actions, proves that adrenaline can lead to insane decision making, even amongst the best.
Under the recent amendment to the Health and Safety in Employment Act (HASIE Act) 1992/2002 an employer is charged to take all practical steps to ensure the safety of employees while at work and shall ensure that no action or inaction of an employee causes any harm to any other person.
The HASIE Act also broadens the definition of a workplace, to include employees who are mobile while they work i.e. Police Officers
Did any member of the public innocently caught up in the Footy Test incident, suffer stress due to the actions or in actions of the officers involved?
While the Police investigation drags on and on, and stands a better than 50-50 chance of no further action being taken against those involved under common law. The HASIE Act is enforced under “Strict Liability” and you’re guilty until proven innocent:
One must wonder: Is OSH currently preparing to prosecute the Police and the Prime Minister as their ultimate employer, in their first test case of the new Act?
And if not: Why not?
And if not: What will a young aggressive defence lawyer make of this, when the first trucking company gets pinged?
Is OSH currently preparing to prosecute the unfortunate officers involved in the ten fatal pursuits last year?
If not: Why not? Personally I hope they don’t.
Is OSH currently preparing to prosecute the employers of the officers involved in the ten fatal pursuits last year?
If not: Why not?
Clearly their employers had no driver evaluation plan in place and no structured ongoing training in place. The PPDP programe is just about to start. They have not been regularly monitoring their employee’s performance and have no commitment from their drivers that they fully understand their responsibilities as professional drivers. The PPDP programe is just about to start.
No policeman, like any other professional driver, goes out to intentionally cause an accident.
Everyone involved in a fatal accident is a victim in one form or another.
Does being rated as gold standard drivers, reduce the level of risk when surrounded by iron rated drivers and other innocents?
Will being rated as gold standard divers reduce the effects of adrenaline?
Is this training and assessment programe long overdue?
Apparently, by about eighty years.
But then, this is “just an old trucker’s point of view”
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