Overview
- Sgt Dean Reynolds told the inquiry he briefly used blue lights and sirens around 4:29am to stop the van but believed it was not a pursuit and expected the driver to find a safe place to pull over.
- He testified that radio traffic prevented him from alerting control that he was behind the van, saying he would have broadcast if the airwave had been free.
- Counsel for survivors said Sharon Miller recalled the officer’s actions ‘spooked’ the driver before two pedestrians were struck, a claim Reynolds rejected as unintended.
- Reynolds said there was no senior coordination of vehicle deployments at the time, and the IOPC has previously found no misconduct or criminality by officers and identified no learning points from its investigation.
- Separately, Police Federation chair Tiff Lynch argued in an op‑ed that forces are unusually inexperienced, citing nearly half of officers with under five years’ service as the inquiry continues to examine agency decisions.