Section:GDN 1N PaGe:14 Edition Date:190906 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 5/9/2019 18:19 cYanmaGentaYellowbl
- The Guardian Friday 6 September 2019
(^14) National
How’s that?
Cricket writer
pays £55,
at hotel for
pint of beer
Number of
road deaths
involving
police at
13-ye a r h i g h
Rob Davies
Complaints about the price of a pint are
nothing new but an Australian journal-
ist has more reason than most to gripe
after being charged more than £55,
for a beer in a Manchester hotel.
Peter Lalor, the chief cricket writer
and beer editor of the Australian news-
paper, was charged the sum for a bottle
of Deuchars IPA at the Malmaison
hotel after a day watching the Ashes
cricket series at Old Traff ord.
Damien Gayle
Forty-two people were killed in road
traffi c accidents involving the police in
England and Wales last year, the high-
est number in more than a decade and
the third highest on record.
Thirty of th e deaths occurred dur-
ing police pursuits, an increase of 13
on the previous year and the highest
since 32 in 2005 -06, which was also the
worst year on record for police-related
road traffi c accidents, with 48 deaths.
Twelve of this year’s deaths were
drivers of vehicles being pursued ,
including one motorcyclist. Eight were
passengers in the car being pursued ;
seven were the driver or passenger
of a vehicle hit by the car being pur-
sued ; and three were pedestrians hit
by the pursued vehicle. Four people
died when they were hit by police vehi-
cles responding to a 999 call. Another
death occurred when an unmarked
police car responding to an emergency
call collided with another vehicle.
The fi gures were revealed by the
“I decided I wanted one beer on the
way home and dropped in because I
have mates staying there,” he said.
“ I didn’t have my glasses on and
there was some issue with the machine
so I had to put my details in twice. I just
had this weird feeling and I said, ‘How
much did I just pay for that beer?’ The
girl at the bar looked at the receipt and
said, ‘Oh my God!’ and was a bit reluc-
tant to show me the bill.”
Upon seeing he had been charged
A$99,983.64 (£55,262.96), Lalor said a
hotel manager immediately admitted
the mistake and promised to help him
Independent Offi ce for Police Conduct ,
the police watchdog, which recorded
276 deaths during or following police
contact in the 2018-19 fi nancial year ,
down from 288 the year before.
Sixteen people died in or after police
custody, down from a 10-year high of
23 in 2017 -18. Of those, 10 were identi-
fi ed as having mental health concerns
and 13 were known to have a link to
alcohol or drugs. Six had force used
against them by officers or mem-
bers of the public before their deaths.
Three were shot by police, including
one unarmed man who was trying to
fl ee a raid on a property where no guns
were found.
Sixty-three deaths were apparent
suicides following custody. Twenty-
one of those had been arrested for an
alleged sexual off ence – 15 of these
involved off ences against children.
There were 152 “other” deaths –
those following direct or indirect
police contact and which led to an
independent investigation. Seven of
those were children, and eight had
force used against them, of whom
two were black and two were “mixed
heritage”. More than half (90) were
reported to be intoxicated at the time
of the incident or had known issues
in this area , and 104 were reported to
have mental health concerns.
Deborah Coles, the director of
Inquest , which supports the fami-
lies of people who have died after
contact with police, said: “ The Angi-
olini review made recommendations
to ensure safer responses to people
with mental ill health and addictions.
“Two years on, the government
reports little progress in these areas.
The fact that the majority of recent
deaths relate to these vulnerabilities
shows the cost of such failures, and the
importance of a public health-focused
response ... Ultimately to prevent fur-
ther deaths and harm, we must look
beyond policing and redirect resources
into community, health, welfare and
specialist services.”
rectify it with his bank. “I woke up to
an alarmed phone call from my wife,
who had found a massive hole in my
mortgage account,” said Lalor.
“They can take the money out in a
second but apparently it takes them
up to 10 working days to put it back.
I’m losing a fair whack of interest and
as of this moment I’m $99,000 out of
pocket. One wag commented that I’d
just been charged London prices. ”
The £55,000 price tag outstrips the
£22.50-a-pint Speedway Stout on off er
in a London branch of the pub chain
the Craft Beer Co last year.
▲ A Sussex police car damaged during a pursuit PHOTOGRAPH: MARC MACDONALD/ALAMY
42
The number of people killed in road
traffi c accidents involving the police
in England and Wales in 2018-
▲ ‘I didn’t have my glasses,’ said Peter
Lalor, a cricket writer and beer editor
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