A good samaritan who coaxed a suicidal woman off a West Footscray road an hour before she was fatally run over by a semi-trailer is questioning whether a lack of police resources my have contributed to her death.
West Footscray resident Anthony was walking his two dogs along Somerville Road at 9pm on August 21 when he came across the woman deliberately lying on the road in front of a stopped car.
“This car had stopped and I yelled at her to get off the road,” he told Star Weekly.
“She was saying ‘I want the car to hit me’.”
Anthony immediately rang triple-0 and asked for police to attend, then helped the woman off the road and began talking with her.
“For the next 50 minutes I was speaking with her,” he said. “She said her name was Janet. We we were just talking about how she grew up in Yarraville and had been living out west all her life.
“I didn’t know why she was upset – it was just a general conversation. I had my two dogs with me and she talked about how she had a little dog as well.”
After waiting without any sign of police arriving, Anthony managed to walk Janet down to a nearby convenience store, where she seemed to make a call on her phone and told him someone was coming to pick her up.
“She had been drinking,” he said. “She said she was going to go to her mother’s in Yarraville once she sobered up.
“She took my phone number and was going to give me a call the next day. My dogs were getting agitated, so I said I would take them round the corner to home and come back.”
As he returned at 10pm, Anthony saw sirens flashing and feared for the worst for Janet.
“She must have gone straight back on to the road after I left,” he said.
“She had completed what she set out to do. I was devastated when I found out.”
Anthony questions why emergency services were not on the scene sooner after his urgent call to triple-0.
“The officer I spoke with said he received a call to come and pick her up, but he was dealing with a drunk person and still had a couple of other jobs,” he said.
“I don’t want to bag the police, they do an admirable job, but to have one car available to do all these jobs was ridiculous.
“There were three cars there when I got back – if they could get there after the act, why couldn’t they get there earlier?”
Victoria Police will not specifically comment on the matter as it remains the subject of a coronial investigation.
Spokeswoman Cathy Le said if a person comes across a situation involving possible self-harm, they should contact Triple-0 and provide relevant details including the urgency of the situation.
“Once the call has been made, and if it is safe to do so, support can be provided by talking to the person calmly, letting the person know that you are concerned about them, and listening to what the person has to say without judgement.”
Ms Le said Victoria Police members attend more than 10,000 mental health incidents every year.
“Police work closely with other agencies, including mental health clinics and hospital emergency departments when responding to mental health and self-harm incidents to get individuals help and support when they need it most.”
Lifeline: 13 11 14
