A man has been arrested and charged for allegedly assaulting and threatening an off-duty officer in Albury last week.
About 6.35pm (Friday 27 March 2015), a female off-duty officer and her friend were near a building site in Albury when they saw a woman inside the fencing on the site and a vehicle parked adjacent on the roadside.
The officer identified herself as a police officer and spoke to the woman.
A man appeared from near the vehicle and both attempted to leave.
The officer and her friend attempted to stop the pair from getting into the vehicle to leave, when a struggle ensued and the man pushed the officer a number of times and threatened her and her friend with a bladed weapon.
The man and woman then drove away in the vehicle.
Albury Local Area Command commenced an investigation, and, as a result of inquiries, a 30-year-old man was arrested by police on Swan Street, North Albury, around 7.30am today (Thursday 2 April 2015).

He was taken to Albury Police Station and charged with numerous offences including:

– Enter enclosed lands;

– Larceny;

– Assault officer in execution of duty;

– Cause actual bodily harm;

– Two counts of assaulting a person acting in aid of a police officer;

– Intimidate officer in execution of duty;

– Wield knife in a public place;

– Armed with intent to commit indictable offence; and,

– Use weapon to avoid apprehension.

Bail refused, the man appeared in Albury Local Court where he was again refused bail to next appear on Wednesday (8 April 2015).

The man’s arrest follows the arrest of a 40-year-old woman, who was arrested at a home on Swan Street on Saturday (28 March 2015).
She was taken to Albury Police Station and charged with stealing, trespass and shoplifting for an unrelated matter. The woman was given conditional bail to appear at Albury Local Court on Tuesday 14 April 2015.

Twelve white crosses will line the Hume Freeway at Wangaratta as part of a country policeman’s push to prevent deaths on the roads over Easter.

For the second year in a row, highway patrol sergeant Michael Connors will take the 1.5 metre wooden crosses he fashioned himself and put them along a 50-kilometre stretch of the freeway from Glenrowan to Springhurst.

Each cross marks the spot where a car came off the road – 12 crosses for 14 lives.

“I’ve been a policeman for 24 years and you see the horrific aftermath of these crashes. I just felt in myself there was more that could be done. At the end of the day, I want to know that I’ve done everything I can,” Sergeant Connors says.

One of those crosses represents the life of Marjorie Hutchieson, killed on July 9 last year.

The 87 year old was on her way home to Wangaratta with her husband, her sister and a grandson. A freak storm hit when they were 15 minutes from home and a layer of ice had hardened on the road.

Six cars slid off the freeway. The passengers in five of them escaped injury but the car Mrs Hutchieson was in hit the only tree in sight.

Her sister, her sister’s grandson and her husband of 68 years survived but the crash killed the mother of seven and grandmother of 24.

Her husband, Bob, will turn 91 this month and he wishes the accident had taken him too.

“Having a loving family helps but it doesn’t help enough. I just want to be with her,” Mr Hutchieson says.

The pain takes his breath away and right before it overwhelms him, he distracts himself and points to the photos covering the lounge room walls in their home of 50 years.

“I’ve got stories for all of them,” he says, and he floods the room with tales of his children and how he started writing to Marjorie when he was serving in the navy.

“Her mum and dad were strict Methodists and I always wondered why they let her write to a sailor. Then I figured later on I was 3000 miles away so they had no worries.”

Mr Hutchieson is going with Sergeant Connors to see his wife’s cross on Good Friday. It will be the first time he has been back to the crash scene.

He hopes people will see her cross and take more care.

“I want people to know it doesn’t get any better, you’ve got it for life,” he says.

The date of the crash that took Mrs Hutchieson is written in orange marker on a whiteboard in Sergeant Connors’ office. Every “fatal” his officers attend is listed.

“I look at it at the start of my shift and by the end of my shift I’m happy if I haven’t added to it,” he says.

Sergeant Connors is what the force calls a “believer”. A committed traffic cop, he truly believes the road toll can be reduced to zero and that his whiteboard will be unmarked.

“I just feel there’s always more that can be done. People see the television campaigns and read the stories but, hopefully, the crosses are more in their face and people will understand it can happen to them,” he says.

Police are investigating a fatal collision at Old Junee yesterday afternoon.

About 4.50pm (Wednesday 1 April 2015), emergency services were called to Canola Way at Old Junee, about 8km west of Goldfields Way.

Police have been told a Ford Falcon towing a box trailer and a Mazda utility collided head-on at the location.

The driver of the Ford Falcon, a 61-year-old man, died at the scene.

The 62-year-old male passenger of the Ford Falcon suffered a broken pelvis and a punctured lung and was taken to Wagga Base Hospital in a serious condition.

The 44-year-old male driver of the Mazda utility sustained minor injuries and was also taken to Wagga Base Hospital for mandatory blood and urine tests.

Police from Wagga Wagga Local Area Command as well as specialist officers from the Crash Investigation Unit are now investigating the circumstances surrounding the incident.

A report will be prepared for the information of the Coroner.