Advertisement

Mother killed on daughter's birthday

Sharon D'Ercole and her daughter Lashay. Picture: file

The lives of a Perth mother driving her daughter to a bus stop and a policeman chasing a stolen car merged with tragic consequences when their vehicles collided at a Dianella intersection last year, a jury was told yesterday.

The first-class constable, whose identity is suppressed, stood trial yesterday in the District Court where he has pleaded not guilty to dangerous driving causing the death of Sharon Ann D'Ercole on April 12 last year while pursuing a stolen car.

Yesterday, the jury was told that Mrs D'Ercole had been giving her teenage daughter Lashay a lift to a bus stop on her 16th birthday when she followed a green light into the intersection of Alexander Drive and Morley Drive.

Prosecutor Bernard Standish said in his opening address that people's lives intersected with other people's lives, including strangers, on a daily basis with innocuous results but "sadly there are occasions when that is not so".

The prosecutor said that at the same moment Mrs D'Ercole's white Toyota entered the intersection, the accused officer and his colleague drove through a red light in pursuit of a stolen black Audi.

The court was told that Mrs D'Ercole died from multiple injuries.

Her daughter was knocked unconscious during the collision, with her memory loss rendering her unable to testify at the trial about what happened.

The police car's lights and siren had been activated and the accused officer was a qualified pursuit driver, the court was told, with the police duo in the process of seeking permission to continue their pursuit when the crash occurred.

Mr Standish said the crucial question in the trial was whether the accused officer's driving had been dangerous to the public or any person.

The accused policeman's colleague, whose identity is also suppressed, yesterday described how the radio line was initially too busy to contact the Police Operations Centre for permission to continue the pursuit.

Seconds later, he got through and told them he had an "urgent" job, making the call just as the police car slowed and approached the first of two intersections at the intersection of Morley Drive and Alexander Drive.

The police car managed to get through the first red traffic light "without any dramas", he said.

But his next memory was of smoke and the police car facing the wrong way.

He had no memory of the second set of traffic lights or the collision, he said.

But he remembered calling for emergency help and trying to render first aid to the D'Ercoles.

The trial continues in the District Court.