Mum crashes into pool after three-hour police chase through western Sydney
A mother has been detained after leading police on a three-hour chase through western Sydney with her young daughter in the car.
An officer was injured when his patrol car was hit during the chase.
It ended when the mentally ill woman’s vehicle crashed into a swimming pool with her and the six-year-old inside.
Police had to jump in to the pool to save them both.
One of those living in the house recorded footage of the incident on his phone and could be heard saying: "there's a car in our pool, you can't make that s*** up".
"We had one police officer trying to drag the woman out of there,” Tristan Levanic later told 7 News.
The 37-year-old woman was led away unhurt.
She had initially been spotted driving erratically at North Richmond around 4:20pm on Monday.
Police tried to stop the car at Hobartville but she led them on a 25km chase towards Penrith.
Police kept a safe distance during the chase but at Rooty Hill, the woman collided with a patrol car, injuring a Sergeant.
She then crashed at Hobartville at 7:30pm.
An officer comforted the frightened 6-year-old until her father arrived. Her mother was escorted to Nepean Hospital.
The family who live at the home where the crash took place, believe tragedy was only avoided by a stroke of luck.
"Lucky I wasn't in the pool with my daughter because we have been doing a lot of swimming lately," Tina Robinson said.
The car landed in the shallow end but had it crashed into the deep end, there would have been nothing to stop it sinking and trapping the mother and girl underwater.
"The police actually put themselves in the face of danger to make sure that the occupants of the car were extracted to safety," Inspector Peter Balatincz said.
