The Police Association have labelled the death of an intoxicated man in Melbourne’s south-west overnight as “preventable”.
The pedestrian was killed near the intersection of Black Forest Road in Wyndham Vale about 5am.
The association said the man had been drunk and walking near the road an hour before the incident but police were unable to arrest or take him to a station under the new laws introduced last year.
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Police were forced to leave the man after they were called to another job.
According to The Age, a team of state government employees tasked with responding to public drunkenness was called but refused to assist the man.
The pedestrian was hit by a car Honda Accord shortly after and died at the scene.
It’s understood he was lying down when he was hit.
Victorian Police Association secretary Wayne Gatt said it was supporting two members who had attempted to help the man before the incident.
“Our full, unequivocal support is behind these two officers, who came to work to help and protect people and who were prevented from doing that because of the government’s recently reformed public intoxication laws,” he said.
“A man is dead and the community should be asking the questions that we were asking three years ago and have been asking every day since.
“Our thoughts are with the man’s family and with our members who will all be traumatised by this preventable tragedy.”
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Changes to public drunkenness laws came into effect in November, meaning police are no longer able to arrest people for being drunk and detain them in their cells.
Instead, they are meant to be supported to go to a safe space like a sobering up centre.
All other Australian states except for Queensland have decriminalised public drunkenness.
The driver of the Honda Accord stopped at the scene and is assisting police with their enquiries.
Police said the investigation remains ongoing.
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