‘Very sad and dark day’: Police mourn officer killed in Sydney crash

Constable Mia Lay loved everything about being a police officer. Less than 18 months into the job, she had shown promise and ambition that her superiors believed would blossom into a long career in blue.

Often, the 20-year-old told her parents of her love for the force – the only work she said she ever wanted to do. Inside the tight-knit Redfern police station, where she was posted after graduating from the Goulburn academy last May, she was adored.

Lay was killed when the marked police car in which she was a passenger collided with a tree in Redfern, in Sydney’s inner south, during an urgent response to a reported vehicle theft in nearby Glebe about 1.30am on Friday.

She died instantly in the collision, which is now the subject of a critical incident investigation being overseen by the state’s policing watchdog, the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission. Her colleague who was driving the car, a 24-year-old male constable, was taken to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in a stable condition with facial and leg injuries.

“She would have been an outstanding police officer and to lose her life both in its prime and just at the infancy of becoming a police officer is a terrible tragedy,” NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon said.

“To think that Mia was doing what she loved, that she was so proud of what she was doing to serve the community, just makes the grief that we all go through today even harder.”

Lay had recently returned to Redfern police station after a three-month secondment in the city’s eastern suburbs, where her partner is a serving police officer. In the past week, the pair had enjoyed a trip away together, Police Minister Yasmin Catley said.

“It’s very lovely to know, I think, that this beautiful young woman loved what she was doing, but tragically she went to work yesterday and she didn’t go home, and that is incredibly sad,” Catley said.

“We ask so much of our police and I often say it’s a job like no other, but to not go home, to lose one of our precious police, is a very, very sad and dark day.”

Members of the NSW Police’s crash investigation unit are now trying to piece together the circumstances around the crash, the first that has killed an on-duty officer since 43-year-old Sergeant Geoffrey Richardson crashed into a tree in the state’s Hunter region while assisting in the pursuit of a suspected stolen car in 2016.

Detectives will explore whether speed was a factor. The car was travelling under lights and sirens, which, under Australian law, allows police officers to exceed the speed limit.

“When officers are actually travelling on urgent duty, when they have lights and sirens on, they’re exempt under the Australian road rules,” Lanyon said.

“But they obviously have to drive to the conditions of the roadway.”

The car was split into several pieces on impact, while debris, including a wheel, was found up to 100 metres from the accident scene. Investigators on Friday carried out skid testing, which is used to assess road surfaces and measure friction, near the crash site.

Lanyon, who returned early from annual leave on Friday to address the incident, said a thorough investigation was required.

“What I’m keen to do is make sure our officers are as safe as possible, and the best way and the only way to do that is to examine these scenes thoroughly so that we understand what happened,” he said.

“We put our lives in the way for the safety of the community, to prevent crime and to make sure the community is safe. Terribly, on some of those days, some police officers pay the ultimate sacrifice.”

Officers at the crash site, about 100 metres from Redfern police station, hugged and comforted one another in the hours after the crash. Lay’s heartbroken colleagues on Friday called her an angel and a wonderful police officer.

“It’s just a tragic day for all police in NSW where two young officers were doing their job as police across the state do 24/7,” Police Association of NSW president Kevin Morton said.

In a statement, the union said officers across NSW were shocked at the death of their colleague.

NSW Premier Chris Minns said, “Today the entire NSW Police family will be grieving.

“Every day our police officers put themselves in harm’s way to keep the rest of us safe.”

Lay’s colleagues working overnight on Thursday were sent home early and have been offered support, Deputy Commissioner Dave Hudson said.

Lay is expected to be farewelled at a police funeral in the coming weeks, and will be commemorated at National Police Remembrance Day next week.

“To Mia, thank you for your courage. Thank you for choosing to join the NSW Police Force, and thank you for serving the community of NSW,” Lanyon said.

“You will not be forgotten.”

Get alerts on breaking news as it happens. Sign up for our Breaking News Alert.