The young thief had a dreadful record.
His passengers family have a strange idea of what the community wants of its police.
It is said he kept driving at great speed after police called it of, I ask if he had kidnapped passenger would police still be expected to call it off?
Remember always, police would have some, if they did not chase who would say they let the community down.
The tragic event was started by a criminal, the bleating by some is not representative of community views.

Lots of letters and reports in the Canberra Times on this today. It has raised the whole issue of police car chases again.

Police need to be able to chase offenders. The police only followed this driver because he was driving erratically so even without the police chase who knows what the outcome would have been.

Higher deterrence in the form of an extra sentence for high speed chases - maybe add an extra five years to the other offences with a non-parole period.

I can understand a Judge giving a young car theft offender one chance or in the case of other minor crime depending on the circumstances but offenders appear to be receiving numerous 'chances' often, as one police friend confided, some having been before a Judge over ten times for house breaking offences.

Prison is not always the answer, sometimes prisons can exacerbate criminal tendencies but at least the offenders are off the streets for the period they are incarcerated. Part of the problem is not enough prison places, so Judges tend to sentence for the most heinous crimes.

This is not good enough. Stop funding wah wah projects and vote buying programs and build more prisons if necessary, particularly suited to minor crimes and rehabilitation of young offenders while there is still some hope for change.

Firstly, looking at THIS case in isolation and in the context of THIS family who have been killed, there's a timeline that leads to the crash - ie. the guy offends (has an accident at that time too but that's largely irrelevant to my point) - he's NOT imprisoned and we see the result the other night. IF he was cooling his heels in prison for 2 or 3 years the way he should have been, THIS family WOULD be alive right now... - and as far as I'm concerned, the court that let him off last year effectively signed a death warrant for this couple and their baby.

I'm not saying the guy wouldn't have killed someone else once released in a couple of years - I'm not entering into "ifs / buts / maybes" type discussion - I'm saying that it's a FACT that THIS family WOULD be alive right now.

By "go after" I of course meant take legal action or at least publically point the finger of major responsibility where it lies.

I have the utmost respect for Police and appreciate the VERY difficult job they do - once again THEY TOO have been screwed by the idiot judiciary of this country.

On the subject of pursuits - I think there may need to be some changing of rules. I'm thinking perhaps if the police arent able to bring it to a conclusion within a few minutes - ie. evidently don't manage to get the "upper hand" pretty much immediately then it shouldn't be continued. The difficult thing of course is that this kind of accident doesn't necessarily have to happen after hours of chase - it COULD just as easily happen in the first minute or two - and police backing off doesn't mean an offender will (I strongly suspect the idiot in this case would probably have been going as fast as the car was capable and running red lights even if he hadn't seen a single cop).

I think judges should be liable for any damage to the community caused by repeat offenders that they let off- possibly as an accessory to the crime if they were found to be excessively negligent in their duties- in the same way doctors are liable for botched operations or prescriptions.

The only problem is that you would need another judge to find him guilty- and judging from past scandals involving members of the legal community and how other members flocked to their aid, they seem rather more supportive of their own fraternity than the average peasant.

I wonder if you have considered. The inevitable conclusion of an attitude like this would be?

More desperate attempts to avoid capture.

More people turning to other careers other than judges. Our court system is over burdened now

We would need more jails. This probably why the court didn't lock him up the first time. Every thing has a cost. Again they are over crowded now. How are we going to pay and staff them....higher taxes, less services...which?

They would always hand out maximums, (hanging judges), on everything serious or trivial! they would be more concern about their own careers etc.

I understand the anger but focus. We need a solution beyond the instant knee jerk reactionary 'somebody needs to pay' the driver the culprit is dead.

I disagree examinator- again, it would reflect doctors still working despite being held liable for any damages from errors- like most jobs I'd imagine.

One could set standards so that an official account of likelihood to reoffend could be made by a neutral observer with qualifications to make the statement (a psychologist) or some parameters to determine if the judge acted negligently.

I personally don't think we should let our legal standards be determined by cost-cutting- or arguably there is little point having a court at all. If it came down to cutting costs, simply cut out the minor offenses from court time- eg legalize drug use and have the courts refuse to hold trials for petty vandalism etc offenses so they have more room.

If a potentially serious offense is let off for ANY reason (ie one that endangers other people, burglary, fraud or company malpractice) then there really isn't much service being done by this group to justify it even being there.