Twice-beaten officer stoical

Press, 2 June 1984, Page 1

Twice-beaten officer stoical

PA Dunedin A traffic officer beaten up for the second time in his career has no thought of changing his job. Mr Trevor Buchanan, aged 32, was one of two traffic officers beaten by gang members in the driveway of a Dunedin suburban address on Thursday evenHe suffered a broken cheek bone, broken nose, extensive cuts to the head, and lacerations to the back. He said last evening that the incident would not deter him returning to work when ha wpc fit “It is part of the job and something we have got to live with,” he said. His fellow officer, Mr Bruce Cunningham, aged 24, suffered minor injuries to the head and body. Before undergoing surgery yesterday afternoon, to have the cheekbone pinned, Mr Buchanan said it was the second time he had been beaten up while working. “Last time there were two of them and I got a broken nose. “I have been a traffic cop

for nine years and the chances of its happening twice in nine years are not too bad.” However, Mr Buchanan’s wife said she would be concerned once her husband went back to work. “It will be a worry, but it will pass again,” she said. Recounting the incident, Mr Buchanan said he was still bewildered about how he managed to escape from the group, which allegedly beat him about the head and body with a block of wood and an aluminium ladder. “We followed a car and the vehicle stopped. They piled out and I was set on by about four of them.” Mr Buchanan said he was pushed to the ground and was briefly knocked unconscious. He said he managed to drag himself back to the safety of the patrol car where Mr Cunningham called for help. “I still do not know how I got away.” Mrs Buchanan said her husbands effort getting back to the car was one of “sheer determination and guts.”