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On September 4, 2015, Timothy Smith-Brown died when he crashed his car into an intersection while attempting to evade police. His passenger and heavily pregnant girlfriend Felicity Jessop was rushed to hospital seriously injured, and later that day gave birth to a son named Tim. Mr Smith-Brown would never meet his child, just as he would never learn that the family in the car into which he crashed, themselves badly injured, were friends of his family. The 24-year-old would have been shattered by their suffering, and truly sorry, his mother told an inquest into his death on Monday. Joanne Smith, a mental health worker from Oxley, said her son had had a difficult 18 months leading up to the crash as he grappled with responsibilities for which he was not equipped, including supporting his young partner and impending fatherhood. "I'm not trying to say Tim was an innocent," Ms Smith told the court, with reference to his history of substance abuse and his driving record. "... but if thought had been given to who was in that car ... my son did not deserve to die for traffic offences. We do not have the death penalty in Australia." The inquest, which has examined ACT police pursuit policy, had resumed this week for a final day of evidence, having already heard several days of testimony last October. It was about 5.45pm the day of the pursuit when two officers, driver Senior Constable Benjamin Stone, and passenger Constable Michael Noble, received an automatic alert that the Mitsubishi passing by in the opposite lane may have been unregistered, and its driver may have been unlicensed. The court had watched an in-car video of the resulting chase countless times, and the two officers were grilled by counsel assisting the coroner, Ken Archer, on why they had decided to initiate the pursuit north along Drakeford Drive, and why they had chosen not to communicate certain information to the pursuit controller back at headquarters. The police car reached speeds of more than 170 km/h in an 80km/h zone in an attempt to catch up to Mr Smith-Brown. But speed was not communicated to headquarters until deep into the pursuit. It was, Constable Noble said in evidence on Monday, "more prudent" the officers communicated with each other about the immediate risks they faced on the road. The whole incident - from the alert that told the officers the Mitsubishi may have been unregistered and its driver unlicensed through to the crash at the red light at Boddington Crescent - lasted less than three minutes. ACT Policing's pursuit policy has been changed since Mr Smith-Brown's death. Under the new "limited pursuit" regime, police are to initiate pursuits only when there is a serious risk to public safety that outweighs the risk of pursuit. In an unsworn testimony read to the court at the conclusion of the inquest on Monday, Ms Smith said she needed people to understand how devastating her son's death had been. "I also need Constable Stone to understand the ramifications of the decision that was made that day," she told the court, where the two constables sat in the public gallery. "To me it's clear in the video that Tim was driving dangerously ... and officer Stone should have called off the pursuit" earlier than he did. The coroner's decision will be handed down at a later date.

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