Police silenced over driver nationality

Southern district police officers have been told to remain tight-lipped when asked about the nationality of drivers involved in fatal crashes.

A media commentator says the withheld information is an "important part of the story'' and needs to be released because of public interest.

An Official Information Act request revealed Southern road policing manager Inspector Tania Baron told police officers how to respond to media when asked if a driver in a serious or fatal crash was an overseas licence holder.

The request was sent after it became apparent police had become more reluctant to provide the nationality of drivers.

The latest Transport Agency data revealed overseas drivers were involved in about 6% of fatal and injury crashes nationally, but the figure was much higher on Southern roads, equating to 27% of fatal and injury crashes in Mackenzie, 25% in Queenstown Lakes, 24% in Southland and 16% in Central Otago.

In March, Kusum Rohit Kenia (60) of Mumbai, India was killed and six other Indian tourists injured when the van they were in crashed near Luggate.

Insp Baron gave officers the guidelines in October telling them to refrain from commenting on the "nationality or ethnicity of drivers involved in crashes''.

The directive was exclusive to the Southern district, Insp Baron said.

In the guide, Insp Baron told officers to "formulate short responses'' to any media at the scene.

The responses should not mention ethnicity but refer to the injured or dead as a "mother or father, brother or sister, husband or wife, son or daughter''.

Officers should talk about the ongoing nature of the investigation, along the lines of: "Serious and fatal crashes require comprehensive investigations and it is too early to determine exactly what may have caused this crash.''

Officers could confirm the number of people involved in the crash and how many people died or were injured.

"Refrain from being drawn into comment on overseas licence holders, as the initial investigation should be focused on what happened,'' she says in the guide.

The following phrase could be used: "The licence status of each driver will form part of our overall investigation, and police are unable to comment at present.''

Massey University adjunct Associate Prof Jim Tully, of Wellington, said there was "a genuine public interest'' in knowing if a driver involved in a crash was an overseas licence holder.

If a foreign driver showed a lack a familiarity with the New Zealand Road Code, such as by driving on the wrong side of the road, it was a significant road safety issue, he said.

"I can't see why you wouldn't make the nationality known because from a public interest point of view it's a significant part of the story.''

He could not see how releasing the information on nationality would compromise a crash investigation.

Police revealed other details such as a driver's age and gender "so where is the big issue in terms of nationality''?

Yesterday, Insp Baron said the"catalyst'' for the guide was a police officer telling a reporter about a fatal crash in Luggate in which a foreign driver failed to give way.

The information the officer provided, such as the cause of the crash and the nationality of the driver, could have been accurate but they were not qualified to provide it, she said.

"They had summed up the crash before the investigation [took] place.''

The information could only be considered accurate after an investigation, which took time, she said.

"You can't go to a crash, be there for half an hour and decide what's happened. It takes longer than that and that includes the identity of the drivers ... Police credibility relies on us actually having evidence.''

Southern police were concerned for the safety of international visitors after foreign drivers were assaulted by vigilantes following media reports about fatal crashes, she said.

"The last thing we want to do is to attribute a crash to a certain nationality when they could very well be New Zealand residents.''

Insp Baron said while nationality was withheld, police revealed a driver's age and gender earlier to the media because those details could usually be deciphered by looking at the injured or deceased, where nationality could not. The age was usually an estimate, such as a woman in her 30s.

shawn.mcavinue@odt.co.nz

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