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Speaker 1: Well as we know, a child's been killed in a

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Speaker 1: horrific incident at a suburban shopping center in Palmerston. Emergency

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Speaker 1: services were called to reports that a child have been

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Speaker 1: struck by a vehicle at a complex on Molden Terrace

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Speaker 1: at about twelve forty five yesterday. Joining me on the

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Speaker 1: line is Detective Senior Sergeant Brendan Linda.

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Speaker 2: Good morning to you.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, good morning, Katie.

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Speaker 2: Brendan. Can you talk us through what unfolded yesterday?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, So, a terrible incident occurred yesterday at the Molden Supermarket,

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Speaker 3: as you've said, at about quarter to one pm yesterday

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Speaker 3: or just after twelve thirty, a Dodge Ram utility was

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Speaker 3: being driven or negotiated out of a car park when

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Speaker 3: the driver give me when the driver has mistakenly driven

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Speaker 3: forward instead of reverse, which struck an eleven year old

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Speaker 3: boy who was walking past in front of the vehicle

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Speaker 3: and suffered got a strop for injuries and there's nothing

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Speaker 3: that could be done to save his life. Tragically.

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Speaker 2: Brendan.

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Speaker 1: It is absolutely horrific, to say the least, and you know,

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Speaker 1: just thinking of that family now ahead of Christmas and

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Speaker 1: what they must be going through, it is honestly a tragedy.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, all deaths on the road are tragic, death of

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Speaker 3: children particularly so and death around this time of year

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Speaker 3: are just even more painful, it seems. So it's not

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Speaker 3: going to be a merry Christmas at all for that family, No, unfortunately.

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Speaker 3: So we're major crash detectives are out investigating how and

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Speaker 3: why that's occurred. There are some unusual intricacies involved, which

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Speaker 3: we've got a reasonably good understanding of probably what's occurred

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Speaker 3: and what it's occurred. We'll be following up with either

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Speaker 3: in the coming days to progress progress that he was

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Speaker 3: arrested from at the scene for the purpose of a

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Speaker 3: drug provided blood the hospital. He provided a subjective to

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Speaker 3: a roadside test which returned to presumptive tests for a

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Speaker 3: particular drug, and so we'll wait on forensic toxicology for

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Speaker 3: that before we proceed avenue.

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Speaker 1: Do we know what what that drug was with that presumptive.

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Speaker 3: Test, Yes, I haven't disclosed that as yet. That's that's

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Speaker 3: forming part of the investigation.

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Speaker 1: You did say that there were some unusual intricacies.

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Speaker 2: What do you mean by.

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Speaker 3: That things, Well, I mean I don't want to provide

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Speaker 3: a running commentary. Investigation itself. We you know, as a

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Speaker 3: matter of fairness, we need to put things to the

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Speaker 3: driver before we discussed those intricacies for the for the

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Speaker 3: benefit of a full impartial investigation. I'll keep that to

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Speaker 3: ourselves for the minute. In due course, we'll make that

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Speaker 3: known as to what's occurred.

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Speaker 2: No, that's fair enough, Brendan. How are the family going.

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Speaker 1: I understand that they are from interstate and had witnessed

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Speaker 1: what had unfolded.

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Speaker 3: They were absolutely distraught, as you can imagine. There are

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Speaker 3: numerous family members with the child, including his mother. There

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Speaker 3: was extended family with him. They were absolutely distraught as

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Speaker 3: you as you would imagine. So it was it was

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Speaker 3: it was very difficult and confronting scene for first responders,

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Speaker 3: and not only for the first responders, but for employees

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Speaker 3: of the supermarket and other people shopping and in the area,

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Speaker 3: and you know, all the all the additional areas that

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Speaker 3: are there that are exposed, like the call takers and

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Speaker 3: the CCTV operators. So this this incident is action on

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Speaker 3: CCTV a number of different angles. So it's it's you know,

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Speaker 3: there's no no confusion as to what's occurred. We're investigating

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Speaker 3: how wide it's occurred.

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Speaker 2: It is utterly heartbreaking. Brendan.

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Speaker 1: What is the process now for for you and for

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Speaker 1: your team that are obviously going through a very thorough

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Speaker 1: investigation process.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so there's there's a number of things that are

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Speaker 3: being focused on, obviously drugs being one, and again that's

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Speaker 3: part of the fatal files that we routinely see involved

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Speaker 3: in these tragic incidents.

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Speaker 4: The the unusual intricacies as as I called them before,

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Speaker 4: will be will be explored, and so we'll do that,

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Speaker 4: you know, as part of the investigation.

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Speaker 3: But yeah, it's it's it's it's a difficult investigation and

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Speaker 3: we would just implore people to to take care on

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Speaker 3: the roads. Obviously this is not a road to the

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Speaker 3: car park, but nevertheless, you know, take take your time

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Speaker 3: and take care with what you're doing, because you know,

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Speaker 3: I don't think there's any suggestion this was anything other

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Speaker 3: than a tragic accident, but you know, accidents like this

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Speaker 3: can happen.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Brendan, we just days from Christmas. It's such a

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Speaker 1: tragic way, you know, to be heading into Christmas now

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Speaker 1: for this family, and I think everybody in the territory

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Speaker 1: feels really pretty shattered after hearing that this had unfolded.

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Speaker 1: What is your advice to territory and so over the

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Speaker 1: Christmas break.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, just just slow down and take care. Obviously it's

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Speaker 3: a busy time of year for particularly the top end.

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Speaker 3: Obviously we've got the weather conditions. I've not looked at

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Speaker 3: the weather forecast, but it's probably inevitable that we'll have

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Speaker 3: a monsoon before long, So the roads are going to

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Speaker 3: be wet. Take your time, take care if you've been

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Speaker 3: drinking or doing drugs, to stay off the road. You know,

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Speaker 3: the fatal five continually coming up in our investigations. In fact,

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Speaker 3: I couldn't even tell you the last fatal we had

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Speaker 3: that didn't involve an element of the fatal five. We

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Speaker 3: have an Operation Alia running at the present time by

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Speaker 3: traffic officers. Expect to be drug tested, expect to be

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Speaker 3: breath tested. I can I can say that's a given

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Speaker 3: that that will happen. You know, when I finished work

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Speaker 3: yet there and drove home, I'll stop at an RBT,

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Speaker 3: so expect to see them out. So if you're going

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Speaker 3: to drink, if you're going to do drugs, to stay

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Speaker 3: off the road.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, And Brendan, I really appreciate your time this morning.

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Speaker 1: I know this must be a really difficult situation for

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Speaker 1: the police, for all those first responders to have dealt

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Speaker 1: with yesterday. Thank you so much for speaking with us

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Speaker 1: and and yeah, no doubt we'll talk again soon.

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Speaker 3: Thanks for that.

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Speaker 2: Thank you,