Cronulla police car crash: Racehorse owner Bert Vieira to sue NSW Police after wife was left in coma
RACEHORSE owner Bert Vieira will sue NSW Police after his wife Gai was put into a coma by side-on smash with a speeding highway patrol car.
NSW
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RACEHORSE owner Bert Vieira will sue NSW Police after his wife was put into a coma by side-on smash with a speeding highway patrol car.
An increasingly angry Mr Vieira said he is still demanding answers from police and was “insulted” by a statement from Traffic and Highway Patrol commander Assistant Commissioner Michael Corboy.
“I still wake up in the morning thinking I am going to cuddle with her and she is not there,” he said. “I want answers.”
Gai Vieira accident: Fresh details emerge amid investigation announcement
Mr Vieira’s wife Gai, 58, was struck side-on at the junction of Kingsway and Connells Road in Sydney’s south by a highway patrol car that was speeding at 124kmh in a 70kmh zone without lights or sirens in pursuit of another driver on a mobile phone.
If the siren had been on Mr Vieira said his wife would “at least have had a chance“.
Last week Mr Corboy said: “Our officer was trying to pull them over to give them a ticket for mobile phone use. It was an urgent duty, at 124kmh at one stage of that urgent duty.”
Mr Vieira said he had received a statement from Mr Corboy saying the issue was complicated. “What’s complicated about being T-boned?” He asked.
“It has been 10 days since the incident and the person has not even been interviewed yet.
“I am not asking them to stop chasing criminals, I am asking them to stop chasing people on a mobile phone,” said Mr Vieira.
Instead he suggested police take a picture and send a fine in the mail. “Why do they need to play high speed cat and mouse?”
“This is the worst statement I have seen in my life. It is an insult to my family and to everyone who has been hurt by a police car chase,” he said.
Mr Vieira said he would take legal action against the NSW Police. “The only way to teach them a lesson is to make it hurt,” he said.
The police officer received minor injuries and Mr Vieira’s three-year-old grandson Tyler was unharmed in the high speed crash. “It’s a miracle,” said Tyler’s mother Cassie. “He was on the other side of the car.”
Mr Vieira’s son Trent said eyewitnesses had told the family the police car was speeding at 150kmh and “fish tailing” on the wrong side of the road before the crash.
But Mr Vieira said he had received some good news. Sutherland Shire Council resolved at a meeting last night (MON) to write to the Roads and Maritime Service to request a light be put at the junction.
“When she wakes up she will be very happy to see a traffic light there,” he said.
Sutherland Shire Council said in a statement: “Council will write to the NSW Roads and Maritime Services seeking a response to calls for the installation of a signalised intersection or no right turn at The Kingsway and Connells Road Woolooware and The Kingsway and Woolooware Road Woolooware.
“Our thoughts are with Mrs Vieira and her family at this difficult time and we wish her a full and speedy recovery.”
Mr Vieira’s racehorse Trapeze Artist has a slot in The Everest next month and will still be running in the race.
Police Minister Troy Grant said the family deserves answers.
“Obviously I’m devastated for the family for what they’ve been subject to but I’m limited in what I can talk about because it’s subject to critical investigation and that needs to follow due process,” he said.
“Assistant Commissioner Corboy made extensive commentary, as he should have and has done, around the circumstances for that horrible incident. It wasn’t a pursuit as within the NSW state pursuit policy within policing. It was a driving incident that will be examined thoroughly and appropriately.
“This family deserve answers absolutely and we will get those answers.”
Mr Grant couldn’t answer about whether the police officer involved had been interviewed yet saying it was an operation matter.
“Any incident of a critical investigation nature and incidents more broadly are always reviewed for how and why they could have done better and that’s certainly the case in this instance,” he said.