00:00Yep, so 18 years ago I joined the New South Wales Police Force starting at St George General
00:07Duties then I moved across to the Police Transport Command and then from there I moved into the
00:13Crash Investigation Unit at Huntingwood and then from there I wanted to take a more proactive
00:18response in road trauma so I transferred across to Traffic and Highway Patrol, being a Highway
00:24Patrol operative. My time in Crash Investigation it was or it is a reactive response to road trauma
00:32so you attend the scene, process the scene and then you remain as part of the investigation
00:38for the longevity of the investigation so you see it right through to the end
00:43which is the finalisation at court so I just enjoyed every aspect of Crash from the beginning
00:49seeing response to the end of a court conviction. So currently with me being a Highway Patrol operative
00:56it is proactive so the complete opposite so I look and detect for traffic offences
01:05obviously leading into a statewide operation being a long weekend where our main focus is fatigue,
01:12speed and impaired driving so moving into that proactive role it enabled me to reduce road
01:20trauma at the ground. I've obviously attended in my career a number of fatalities but the one incident
01:28that resonates with me is a fatal involving a child and a mother so as I arrived at the scene
01:36the ambulance
01:37helicopter were on scene with the aero medical team which includes a doctor and they were working on
01:45the surviving child they required the scene to be completely still so there was no movement no conversation
01:53it was just complete silent so it was quite an eerie feeling. At the time I had a my child
02:03was the same
02:04age as the deceased child and I remember looking to my right and seeing a small body underneath a white
02:14blanket
02:15at that point it was it was quite difficult to keep my emotions under control. You don't mean to but
02:26if if generally if you're a parent and you arrive to a collision where children are involved you you put
02:33your child's face on on that child's body it's something that you just you just can't control.
02:39So throughout the crash I did keep my feelings and emotions in check but once I left and I was
02:49going
02:49back to my office I broke down in the police vehicle just imagining the grief and the pain that
02:58that the father would have been going through and still to this day yeah I do think about that job.
03:08So when you attend a serious or fatal collision generally the smell of petrol that's the first
03:15thing that you're going to smell but varying collisions are going to have different aspects.
03:20um as I said the the collision that resonates with me um that one was particularly different because
03:29it was so silent and it was the environment it was unsettling so that one yeah that there was
03:38there wasn't really smell there was no sounds um yeah it was just complete stillness.
03:46Telling a family member that their loved one has died as a result of a collision is probably one of
03:52the hardest things a police officer will face uh you're essentially you you don't you you don't know
03:58these people and to have that conversation um using using the words that yeah their loved one will never
04:07return is is not easy and you have to you have to keep your emotions in check so although you
04:15police
04:16officers or even myself although you might um people might think that you've been emotionally distant
04:22and that you don't care it's it's the complete opposite so you have to push through uh not be
04:31overwhelmed just so yourself you can get through um that conversation because it is an extremely
04:36difficult one my message to drivers especially leading into a long weekend is be patient because it's not
04:44worth it so if if you've missed your turn if you're going to be late it's okay uh it's not
04:52worth taking
04:53the life of someone else because you you are not being patient uh speeding drink driving or even making
05:01a small mistake on the road could have dire consequences so that's my message be patient
05:07because it is not worth it yeah so throughout my career i have seen uh a decrease in certain driving
05:16behaviors um but it is difficult to judge because there are a lot more vehicles on the road now than
05:20what there were 18 years ago but i definitely my own work have seen an improvement uh in certain driving
05:27behaviors yes attending serious and fatal collisions it it is frustrating and it's impossible not to feel
05:35certain anger as many many collisions that we have attended over the years are avoidable um if drivers
05:43could just be patient um and just respect the road rules as i said there is there is no uh
05:52there's
05:53no coming back once you've taken a life there is no coming back from that so just yeah be patient
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