National Road Safety Week: Top cop shares harrowing story of first ‘death knock’ after teen dies in crash

One of Queensland’s most senior police officers has opened up about the harrowing, emotional experience of his first “death knock”, as he calls out a “loss of respect” on the state’s roads.

A top cop has become emotional as he shared the story of his first death knock to mark the start of National Road Safety Week.

Superintendent Peter Miles, of Gold Coast police, recalled how he was a young constable working at Logan when he had to break the tragic news to the parents of a 19-year-old woman who had been killed in a car crash.

“The accident itself happened on the Coast but the parents lived in Logan where I was working at the time,” he said in an interview on ABC Gold Coast.

“I’ll never forget (the) mum’s face, she knew straight away that this was not good news. You don’t have police knocking on your door unannounced at 2.30 in the morning.

“She said ‘my kids’ and I said ‘yes’. There was a brother and sister together (in the vehicle) and unfortunately the young girl had passed away from her injuries.

“We sat there for a while, and it’s very hard to comprehend what they’re (the grieving parents) going through. I do have a 19-year-old (now) and I don’t know how you get over that.

“I don’t know how you get over the grief of losing a child.”

Gold Coast Police Acting Chief Superintendent Peter Miles. Picture: Alex Treacy

Supt Miles said he spoke to his own mother at the time to try to process the tragedy.

“She said ‘it’s not natural for your kids to die before you Peter, it’s just not natural’. It’s a terrible thing.”

Supt Miles said when you take out the ‘fatal five’ factors which caused crashes – speeding, drink and drug driving, not wearing a seatbelt, fatigue and distracted driving – there were not too many “freak” contributors.

“You take that out of the picture and there are not too many accidents which occur which take a life. There’s always a reason for it,” he said.

A lack of respect on the road was also a major problem, Supt Miles said.

“We see daily learners being tailgated because people think that’s funny,” he said.

“How bad is it when we’ve got to have a (TV) ad with (motor racing great) Craig Lowndes to say ‘give (other motorists) a wave’? When did we lose that respect of allowing people to jump in front of us and just to take our time.

“Three to five seconds extra in time is not much to ask to allow one car in. It helps that person, it helps you. We’ve lost respect on the roads.”

Queensland experienced its worst road toll in 15 years last year, with 302 deaths.

The road toll so far this year is 88, down 13 per cent on the same period last year.