Source: Radio New Zealand
Hayden Tasker is on trial for murdering Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming and badly injuring Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay The Press / Iain McGregor
A Nelson policeman who was part of efforts to save Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming says the moment a car hit her was like a land mine exploding.
Hayden Tasker, 33, is on trial at the Christchurch High Court for murdering Fleming and badly injuring Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay, after driving into the pair in the early hours of New Year’s Day last year.
Tasker has admitted three charges of dangerous driving and his defence lawyers say Fleming’s death was manslaughter, arguing he was depressed and drunk at the time.
They say the tragedy was a failed suicide attempt, the result of Tasker wanting to spark a police chase to end his life.
On Monday, constable Jude Yeoman told the court he was standing near the toilet block in the middle of Buxton Square when he heard the engine noise of an approaching car.
“I hear just this impact, this incredibly powerful impact and it’s like an explosion, like a landmine or something,” he said.
Yeoman said the vehicle was travelling at high speed.
“I heard the car hit people. It was just this incredibly deep, hard thump,” he said.
Yeoman said saw two bodies flying through the air and recognised them as police officers because of their hi-vis vests.
One was propelled higher than the car and disappeared from view, while the other was thrown a distance of between 20 to 30 metres, he said.
“My recollection is seeing them tumbling through the air at great speed and then smashing into the ground, kind of like tumbling and ragdolling. The impact on them was catastrophic,” he said.
Yeoman said he ran towards Fleming, who was being attended to by two other officers, but because the car was still moving through the carpark he was concerned the driver was trying to flee.
He ran after the car, trying to record video footage so he could capture the registration and later identify the driver.
One of the officers with Fleming then called for help, Yeoman said.
“I’m looking sort of over to my right at them tending to Lyn and I’m watching the vehicle accelerating,” he said.
Yeoman said he went to help while watching the car drive into the back of a nearby patrol car.
“I didn’t see it brake, had it braked it would have been quite easy to avoid that impact but it didn’t, it just went crunch, right into the back of that car that was there,” he said.
He ran towards the car with several other officers and members of the public, including a young man who reached through the window and grabbed the driver with one hand, pulling the keys from the ignition in the other.
“I’m still really concerned this vehicle’s going to attempt to reverse out and continue causing harm so my priority is to immobilize it,” Yeoman said.
Wary that the car might reverse and injure him, he hesitantly reached through the back driver’s side window to unlock the door to try to disable the driver.
He said the airbag had gone off and the car was filled with dust but he could see the driver on the other side handcuffed, lying on the ground and “flapping like a fish”.
Yeoman then went back to help the two officers and other members of the public who were giving CPR to Fleming.
He said one of the constables doing chest compressions was distraught, yelling, “come on, senior, come on, senior”.
Yeoman then took over for 10-15 minutes and someone brought a defibrillator, before paramedics arrived.
He said they all stood back at one point to let the machine administer a shock but nothing happened, so they continued chest compressions.
“I do have a really distinct recollection of Lyn’s body, I don’t know, almost coming back to life, if that’s the right term, possibly isn’t, but she’s just made this huge, big heave, like this big kind of inhalation,” he said.
Fleming was taken to Nelson Hospital where she was put on life support until her family were able to gather to say goodbye.
The trial continues this week, with more witnesses to be called by the Crown.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand