Police Use Civilian's Cars as a Roadblock.... With the Occupants Still Inside !!

[EB#]

Sorry.... Just noticed the other thread (closed).
Perhaps a mod can delete this one.



This is pretty stupid..... surely ??

A young motorist is furious after police used his vehicle as a road block to stop a high speed chase.
Police were attempting to end a chase on Melbourne's Hume Highway involving a man allegedly driving 'like a maniac' at speeds of up to 200km/h.

17-year-old student Madhawa Mapa says he's still trying to comprehend how police could use 'innocent civilian lives' as part of their road block.
Writing for The Age, Madhawa says a casual Saturday morning drive with his mother quickly turned into something more serious as police pulled flagged him down.

"The police officers exited their vehicle, and firmly instructed the traffic to form three lanes, occupying the emergency lane as well," he wrote.
"Before I knew it, there was a loud bang; a huge force to my back and I knew something had rammed into the back of my car. The offender's car then crashed into the concrete wall."

Madhawa says he feared for his life when he realised he was in the middle of a police operation, and the alleged offender may have been armed.
The drama unfolded after officers started to pursue a stolen car near Benalla on Saturday morning.

Police say the chase was called off after just three minutes because of safety concerns.
Officers then took the decision to stop traffic in a bid to block the road near Epping and slow down the speeding driver, who appeared to be heading for Melbourne.

David Rendina was in his car with his girlfriend and two kids when police directed him to stop in an emergency lane.
Mr Rendina was stopped at the end of a queue of three cars when he saw the speeding car approaching from behind.

"I pretty much knew I was a sitting duck. There's no other way for this speeding driver to go but into the emergency lanes," he said.
"I just remember visualising that and him speeding towards me and going, 'well, there's nothing I can do here'.

Assistant Commissioner Steve Fontana has says police were in a difficult position. He says they had to stop the car before it got close to the city out of fear someone would be killed.
"This guy was driving like a maniac to be quite frank," he told.

"This bloke was driving at alleged speeds up around 200 kilometres per hour on the freeway.
"They [officers] said if we don't stop this bloke he's going to kill someone and himself," he said.

Assistant Commissioner Fontana has ordered a review of the incident, but has defended the roadblock tactic.

"He had slowed right down. The tactic was actually working," he said.
"But I was a little bit concerned about the vehicles when you see them in the emergency lane. That's something we're looking at."


Link here:
http://au.news.yahoo.com/vic/latest/...-as-roadblock/