Police 'wrong' about blame for fatal smash
By Candice Marcus
Updated 52 minutes ago
Coroner said Greg Pretty partly on wrong side (The Advertiser)
Map: Flaxley 5153 A coroner said an inquest could have been avoided into a fatal motorbike crash involving former Australian racing champion Greg Pretty had police not made incorrect statements to the media at the time.
Greg Pretty, 54, was riding near Flaxley in the Adelaide Hills in January last year when he crashed head-on into another experienced motorbike rider, Mostyn Walker, killing them both.
The inquest heard police told the media at the time of the crash it was the other rider who was to blame for the accident.
Deputy Coroner Anthony Schapel found Pretty veered partly onto the wrong side of the road while cornering and caused the crash.
He said the public comments from police had not been corrected.
"The assertions attributed to the police spokesman have not been publicly corrected since they appeared in the media in January 2010," he said.
"The assertion made by the police spokesman to the clear effect that blame for the two deaths could be laid at the feet of the other motorcyclist and not Mr Pretty was premature and wrong.
"The uncorrected account of the accident as described by the police spokesman was, if anything, the antithesis of the manner in which the accident occurred."
Mr Schapel said an inquest became vital.
"This inquest would have been largely unnecessary had police refrained from making any public statement about this accident before the facts were established," he said.
