The Queensland Police Union has stopped short of condemning media coverage of the hit-run death of Ashleigh Humphrys in the wake of the driver taking his life on Thursday.
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QPU president Ian Leavers said the incident was a salient lesson for police, media and members of the public not to pre-judge the circumstances of any crash, after what was initially widely assumed to be a criminal act apparently turned out to be a tragic accident.
Police believe a drunk Ms Humphrys, 20, was lying or crawling on the Western Freeway on-ramp in Toowong about 4am Sunday when she was fatally struck by a dark-coloured sedan.
Tragically, the owner of the sedan apparently did not realise he hit her.
Police seized his car on Monday and interviewed and released him without charge.
On Thursday, the 57-year-old father took his own life.
Prior to the arrest, investigating police indicated they were looking for a driver who deliberately fled the scene, describing it as a "disgraceful act".
Some media outlets took the attribution of blame a step further, branding the driver a coward.
The fact the evidence later pointed to it being an accident provided a salutary lesson for all involved, Mr Leavers said.
He described the two deaths as "an absolute tragedy".
"Whenever you go to these incidents, you must go with an open mind and not go with a pre-determined idea and cast blame," he said.
"The duty is to investigate and get to the truth and I say that with the reporting of it.
"The duty is to report the facts and not sensationalise things and pre-determine what you think may or may not have occurred.
"There are two families that will now never be the same as a result of this."
Asked if early media coverage of Ms Humphrys death and the hunt for the driver of the dark-coloured sedan was irresponsible, Mr Leavers declined to attribute any blame, saying there was nothing to be gained from doing so.
"I don't see there is anything to be gained at this point in time by playing a blame game out there publicly," he said.
"We should respect there are two families who will never be the same.
"I just don't see there is anything to be gained and whether it be a journalist or police officer, they are ordinary normal people and we just need to be very careful about pre-judging and that goes for whether you are a journo, a police officer or a member of the community because I have no doubt, there are some people, this will live with them for the rest of their lives as well."
Both deaths will be investigated by the Queensland coroner.
He said he had "every confidence" the police officers who conducted the interview with the driver acted appropriately and said that process too would be thoroughly examined in the coronial investigation.
He said everyone could learn something from the tragic accident.
"We can have a look at the wrongs of any person involved in this but its important we must look forward and look how we can be positive and (see) we should never pre-judge anyone at any point in time," he said.
"It goes for not only police and the media (but) the entire public.
"What is foremost on my mind is there are two families now who will never be the same."
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