LITMIR.BIZ

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the accident squad that enabled Chris Field to thrive in what was often a traumatic job. The squad was largely independent, which meant an investigation was followed from beginning to end. Field and his fellow investigators attended accidents, gathered evidence, took their own photographs, attended post-mortem examinations, collated evidence and appeared in court as expert witnesses.

      Job satisfaction aside, they still had to maintain a safe psychological and emotional distance from the carnage. Often, throughout a shift, they’d catch sight of a speeding driver through the station window and say, ‘There goes another customer’.

      An altered TAC (Transport Accident Commission) campaign poster, on the office wall read:

      If you drink and drive, you’re a bloody idiot customer.

      Seeing so much death on the road – mostly because of alcohol and speed – the officers felt that messages of road safety too often mean little to the public.

       Accident investigator, Senior Constable Chris Field.

      ‘People think it won’t happen to them,’ Field said. ‘But my job proves it can and does happen to anybody.’

      It’s easy to see how the officers become hardened. Time after time, they are called to ‘accidents’ involving drunk young men with prior convictions who wrap their cars around power poles.

      One incident that stood out in Field’s memory was a triple fatality where one young man’s body was found in a particularly stupid place. Investigators called to the scene found two dead young men in the front seats of the car. Empty beer cans had spilled out of the wreck onto the ground.

      The vehicle’s rear-end was jammed against a stone fence and it wasn’t until the wreck was finally moved that police found a third body – in the boot of the car.

      Investigations revealed that the men had gone on a beer run to the bottle shop, then loaded their purchases into the boot. The third victim had jumped in there ‘to be with the beer’. For a lark, his friends had sped around the streets to throw him around inside the boot. They were all drunk and they all died.

      Chris Field said that it was always the death of children that broke through the team’s emotional barriers, because kids were always innocent victims.

      One Christmas Eve Field was called to investigate a two-car collision near a small country town in Victoria. Five people had been killed. It transpired that a woman had been driving to New South Wales to visit her mother-in-law for Christmas. She was following her husband and father-in-law who were travelling in their own car. Her passengers were her two children, aged six and two.

      Inexperience of country roads and possibly fatigue were blamed for the woman missing a bend and colliding head-on with a car containing two people – also on their way to visit relatives for Christmas. The scene was utter carnage.

      Not only did Field have to investigate all aspects of the accident, he had to deal with the distraught husband who had pulled his car over when he noticed his wife was no longer following him.

      The hardest part – and the thing that stayed with Field – was seeing the tiny bodies of the two children and then noticing the car full of Christmas presents with cards handwritten in a childish scrawl: To Dear Granny.

      Field finished his lengthy investigation at 3am, returned home to catch a couple of hours sleep and was woken by his own small children opening their presents.

      ‘All I could think about were those little kids who wouldn’t be opening their presents that morning. It ruined Christmas.’

      The tendency of some cars to burn following a collision, meant Field had many tragic cases stuck in his memory.

      In one, a woman died on impact when her car hit a tree. The vehicle’s roof had folded in, trapping her baby in its capsule in the back seat. Bystanders had rushed over to try to free the baby, but soon smoke began to billow from underneath the car. The would-be rescuers tried desperately to shield the trapped infant with blankets but were soon driven back by the flames.

      Field shrugged sadly. ‘There was nothing anyone could do.’

      In another accident, a man lost control of his car on a corrugated country road, and careered into a small bridge where he was trapped. A private security officer saw the accident and stopped to help. He couldn’t free the man’s leg which was caught under the dashboard, so he began running to get help at a nearby farmhouse. He heard the man yelling and turned back to see smoke coming from the car’s engine. The security man continued running to the farmhouse but help didn’t arrive in time.

      When Field attended the scene, the driver’s charred body was found with his arms raised defensively in front to shield his face.

      The security man told him, ‘I would have given a million dollars for a fire extinguisher that day’.

      Not all road fatalities are added to the state’s annual road toll – some are suicides and some are murder – but any involving a car or a road may be investigated by the accident squad.

      Field said investigators must have an open mind.

      ‘It is easy for experts to tell the difference between someone who has been hit by a car, and someone who was run over to make it look like an accident.’

      Pedestrians hit by cars typically suffer similar injuries, quite different to someone who is run over while already on the ground. Damage to the victim’s legs at the height of the car’s bumper bar is usual, as are head injuries where the victim is thrown up onto the bonnet and perhaps smash the windscreen.

      Investigators get the occasional case of murder. Field says it is not unheard of for a husband to line up his car with the biggest power pole or truck he can find and, just before impact, unclasp his wife’s seat belt, ramming only her side of the car. He kills her but walks away relatively unscathed.

      These cases are difficult but not impossible to prove.

      Chris Field says that the function of the accident squad is to investigate any road fatality with three or more victims; any case involving police – on or off-duty; and any case of criminal negligence. Field said police are just as accountable as everybody else and the accident squad is always called in as an independent investigator when police are involved in serious collisions.

      Field occasionally lectured at the police academy and told new recruits bluntly of their responsibility on the roads. Field called it ‘double jeopardy’ if police are involved in a collision. He said not only are they investigated by the accident squad, but they are also investigated by the police internal investigation department. The case is then passed to the state Ombudsman for independent review.

      Field said these exacting standards meant that the public could be assured that police neither receive nor expect special treatment.

      The success rate of the accident squad is high. In fact 95 per cent of hit-and-run cases are solved with the examination of physical evidence and the help of witnesses.

      Senior Constable Chris Field was understandably cynical about the general messages of road safety. He conceded that innovations such as speed cameras have slowed traffic down, but sadly concluded it was the ‘hip pocket’ effect rather than drivers behaving better because they should.

      ‘Road safety is ultimately society’s responsibility. If society believes that drink driving is wrong, then its members will actively encourage each other not to drink and drive.

      ‘I remember when it was considered normal – even humorous – for a drunk to stagger to his car and drive home. This attitude has clearly changed. Death on the roads is no longer considered an inevitable part of driving.’

      But one thing that Chris Field was certain of: as long as people continue to flout road rules, drink and drive, speed, and drive while tired, the accident squad will never be short of customers.

      7. The Cover Girl & the Serial

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