The Northern Territory’s coroner believes offences were committed regarding the faulty set-up of a traffic diversion that led to the death of a well-known Darwin musician, and has referred the matter to the police commissioner and the director of public prosecutions. It is worth noting that despite the motorcyclist being found to have a blood alcohol level of 0.204% and a high level of cannabis in his system, the coroner concluded that the poor traffic management set up was a contributing factor to the rider’s death. The Coroner stated: ‘I believe that offences may have been committed in connection with the death of Peter John Bonnell and in accordance with section 35(3) I report my belief to the Commissioner of Police and the Director of Public Prosecutions.’
Image: The following picture was taken just after dawn on the morning of the crash shows the direction of the white line into the barriers.
A full copy of the publicly available Coroner’s report can be read here.
We encourage all those involved in the design, implementation, review and auditing of temporary traffic management to read this report to take away valuable lessons learnt.
