Four Australian police officers have been killed in a crash involving a lorry in the city of Melbourne.
The officers were identified as Leading Senior Constable Lynette Taylor, Constable Glen Humphris, Senior Constable Kevin King and Constable Josh Prestney.
The police chief for the state of Victoria said it was the worst loss of life in the history of the state’s police force.
The officers had pulled over a Porsche 911 sports car for speeding on a motorway when the lorry ploughed into them, officials said.
Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton said the lorry driver was under guard in hospital and would be tested for alcohol and drugs.
He said the incident happened after two of the officers pulled over the Porsche on to the hard shoulder of Melbourne’s Eastern Freeway near Kew on Tuesday at about 17:40 local time (08:40 GMT).
They decided to have the car impounded and called for other officers to assist them.
Two more officers then joined them and all were standing out of their cars when the refrigerated lorry drove into them and the Porsche, Mr Ashton told reporters.
The car driver, who was not believed to have been injured, fled the scene on foot.
The driver of the Porsche car, Richard Pusey, 41, a former mortgage broker has since been arrested.
Pusey was pulled over for travelling at 140km/h on the Eastern Freeway in Melbourne about 4.50pm on Wednesday and allegedly tested positive to drugs.
A truck then at 5.40pm ploughed into the group of police standing at the roadside, killing four officers, before Pusey allegedly fled on foot.
Pusey has at least 13 previous charges, beginning in 2007 when he was convicted of speeding 70km/h over the limit and fined $210.
The following year he was jailed for eight months, with half of it suspended for two years, and $346 compensation for intentionally causing injury.
An assaulting police charge from the same incident was dropped.
Fast forward to 2014 and he was convicted and fined $2,000 plus $2,500 in costs for carrying out work without a building permit.
In 2016 he was ordered to do 60 hours of community service for stalking.
Pusey committed three crimes in 2017. He was fined $500 for contravening a safety intervention order, and fined $200 for driving with a suspended licence.
The same year he was fined $500 for emitting excessive noise from his house.
A year later he was convicted and fined $750 for using a carriage service to menace, and a charge of intentionally damaging property was dropped.
