Father of killer driver who died in high-speed police pursuit wants compensation

A HEARTBROKEN father is suing taxpayers over a high-speed police pursuit of his son that ended in the deaths of his son and another driver.

A HEARTBROKEN father is suing taxpayers over a high-speed police pursuit of his son that ended in the deaths of his son and another driver.

Danko “Dan” Cosic claims the fatal crash, which also seriously injured the other driver’s wife, was caused by the negligent driving of the chasing police officer.

His claim comes more than two years after a coroner found police should have stopped pursuing his speeding, mentally ill son, instead of chasing him the wrong way down a freeway.

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An inquest heard the pursuit was terminated shortly before the crash, when Goran Cosic’s blue 1996 Ford Fairlane entered an off-ramp of the Princes Freeway at Morwell.

Cosic, 42, continued at high speed about 1.2km along the freeway before slamming into the gold Holden Vectra driven by Jason Govan, 26, on January 21, 2012.

Jason Govan and his son Aidan. Picture: Supplied

Jason and Rhiannon Govan with son Aidan. Jason was killed in an accident following a police pursuit and Rhiannon was seriously injured. Picture: Supplied

Mr Govan, 26, was killed and his wife, Rhiannon, was badly injured in the January 21, 2012 crash. Their son Aiden, 20 months, was not in the car; he was with his grandparents.

The 139-second police ­pursuit had ended shortly ­before the fatal collision.

Cosic had sped through the Morwell station car park and run a red light before entering the freeway exit.

The pursuing divisional van reached 150kmh shortly before the chase was called off.

Coroner John Olle found that given Cosic’s erratic behaviour it had been appropriate for police to try to intercept him, but it would have been prudent for them to stop the chase when he ran a red light.

And he said the chase should have ended as soon as Cosic entered the exit ramp, criticising police for following him to “observe” him.

Mr Olle said that if since-implemented changes to the police pursuit policy had then been in force, the chase would not have happened.

Dan Cosic whose son Goran was killed in a police pursuit in 2012. Picture: Lawrence Pinder

Leading Sen-Constable Thek told the inquest he was driving a divisional van in Commercial Rd, Morwell, just after 9am when he noticed Cosic speeding towards them and cross the centre line.

He said he could see Cosic “yelling” at he and his partner and moving about erratically in his car.

Leading Sen-Constable Thek said he did a U-turn toward the car, which came to a skidding stop outside a primary school before reversing back with smoke coming from the tyres.

Goran Cosic who was survived by his son after dying in a police pursuit in 2012. Picture: Lawrence Pinder

The officers followed the car, which stopped in a nearby road.

As Leading Sen-Constable Thek approached on foot with his OC spray in hand, Cosic yelled, “Put your f---ing gun down” and took off again, at which point the pursuit began.

Cosic who had been released from jail five months earlier, after serving 18-months for In the days before the fatal crash, Cosic had been in two road-related incidents.

He had been free for five months after an 18-month jail term for aggravated burglary, and had a history of substance abuse and mental illness. He had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and a mixed personality disorder.

A police officer who confronted him when he was parked on the roadside in Yarragon two days before the fatal crash recalled him saying: “We are all going to hell, we are going together, I am the devil, your bullets cannot stop us because we are all going to hell together.”

Danko Cosic is seeking unspecified and aggravated damages from the State of Victoria.

He claims that Leading Senior Constable Malcolm Thek’s driving was negligent, and that the state had failed to devise an adequate or properly implemented pursuit policy.

“Six years on and I still see Goran in the side of my eye, walking by, talking to me,” Mr Cosic, 79, said today.

“My heart is still broken. It will never mend. The worst thing any parent can do is bury their child.

“No one should ever, ever burry their child. It’s not what is supposed to happen. It’s not right.

“The pain you feel inside, it never mends. I will never get over the grief.”

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