By Rachel Eddie
A drunk man was hit and killed by a car after being denied help by Melbourne’s sobering-up service because no male staff were rostered on at the centre.
An investigation into the “root cause” of the 34-year-old’s death in June has prompted an overhaul of the rostering system at the Collingwood facility, which is managed by cohealth.
Police investigate after the man was hit and killed by a car in Wyndham Vale on June 28.Credit: Wayne Taylor
The community health provider was called in the early hours of June 28 after the man was found lying on the road in Wyndham Vale in Melbourne’s outer south-western suburbs.
“Based on the client’s history, it was determined that a referral to the sobering centre was not appropriate, and Victoria Police was subsequently informed,” a cohealth spokeswoman said in a statement to The Age, extending sympathies to the man’s family and loved ones.
The Police Association Victoria in June said that officers, who arrived about 3.20am, made the man some food, contacted cohealth and tried to reach carers. They stayed with the man for about an hour before leaving him in his home to attend to another job.
Shortly after, the man was hit and killed by a car on the corner of Brimpton Grove and Black Forest Road.
The investigation into the man’s death, revealed in incident logs obtained by The Age under freedom of information (FOI) laws, found cohealth had no male employees rostered on during the early hours of June 28 after a shift changeover and had determined it would be inappropriate to respond to the client based on his history.
“The review focused on identifying areas for improvement to better safeguard both clients and staff,” the cohealth spokeswoman said.
She said cohealth was taking “a more strategic approach to staff mix in our rostering, ensuring that we have the appropriate skills and experience on hand for each shift”.
The sobering-up centre was created to support the decriminalisation of public drunkenness in November 2023. The state government committed to the reform after the death of an Aboriginal woman in custody in 2017 after she was arrested on a train for public drunkenness.
Outreach services now support people who are drunk in a public space and, if needed, transport them to a safe place to sober up, such as the cohealth-run centre in Collingwood.
Police still respond to safety issues and an ambulance should be called if the person requires medical assessment or treatment.
Dedicated Aboriginal services respond to intoxicated First Nations people, not cohealth.
The incident logs reveal the June 28 death was not the first time a patient was hurt since public drunkenness was decriminalised.
In May, an intoxicated person hurt the back of their head in a “verbal and physical altercation” with a cohealth staff member who did not follow procedure when responding to the “uncooperative/ obstructive” client.
Inside the Collingwood sobering-up centre.
The staff member is suspected of shoving the patient, who suffered “temporary [moderate]” harm in the offsite altercation.
Police were called to the scene after 5am on May 21, but no police report was made. Cohealth reviewed the incident and its response to manage the staffer is ongoing.
Teething issues were expected in the early days of the major reform. But the man’s death in June sent a chill through the sector and the government, and left a family grieving.
The foundations of the new health-focused system were only fully established by June 30, 12 months after they should have been, The Age can further reveal.
“Key project milestones were delayed due to recruitment and difficulties in finding suitable candidates,” the Department of Justice and Community Safety told a parliamentary committee last Wednesday.
Stakeholders have told The Age that funding was released too slowly, hampering efforts to provide support to services. Cash was still scarce, but stakeholders said the reform had since been working fairly smoothly.
The May and June incidents, which were unrelated, were the only two logged between November 7, 2023 – when public drunkenness was decriminalised – and the end of August, the time period covered by The Age’s FOI request.
The Department of Health said it had not been notified of similar incidents since the end of August.
The coroner is investigating the man’s death and could consider whether there were other opportunities to respond.
Police Association secretary Wayne Gatt said the “tragic” case resembled the very scenarios the union warned of when the reforms were being considered.
“We continue to maintain that the reform itself is progressive; however, we warned from the beginning that its application was reckless,” he said. “Eliminating the safety net that police provided, rather than incorporating it into a health-based response is a failing of government policy.”
Support has been provided to people more than 20,000 times since the reform rolled out a year ago, such as through offering people coffee, driving them home, calling a family member or taking the person to the sobering-up centre.
A Department of Health spokeswoman said the reforms struck a balance.
“While there is always more work to do to close the gap for vulnerable people in our community, this reform already has and will continue to change and save lives,” she said.
“We extend our deepest sympathies to the family and loved ones of the man who tragically lost his life in Wyndham Vale.”
A Victoria Police spokesman said the force was compiling a coronial brief of evidence with the oversight of Professional Standards Command and that it would be inappropriate to comment further.
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