Elderly man seriously injured after police pursuit crash in Perth
An unmarked police car collided with a civilian vehicle during a chase of a stolen car.
AI-assisted coverage comparison, editor-supervised · How this was made
The 80-year-old driver of this Hyundai Accent suffered serious injuries in the crash, which happened on South Street in Leeming. (ABC News)
Photograph: ABC Australia (embedded from source)
What this story says
- An 80-year-old man sustained serious injuries and is in hospital after his car was hit by an unmarked police vehicle during a pursuit.
- The crash occurred in Leeming, Perth, when police were chasing a stolen car.
- Two police officers were taken to hospital as a precaution and have since been discharged.
- The driver of the stolen car was apprehended in Coogee.
Who covered it
Percentages are shares of the 8 outlets carrying a published leaning rating. Coverage measured .
Trust
60/100
Craft
70/100
Hype
45/100
8 sources · methodology
Thin on the right so far
Only 1 of the 8 outlets with a published leaning rating that ran this story are rated right.
This story is still being watched, so it is a count and not yet a finding. Coverage keeps arriving for hours after an event, and a side that has published nothing this morning may publish by tonight. If it is still true when we stop checking, we will say so plainly.
An 80-year-old man is in hospital with serious injuries after a police pursuit ended in a collision in Perth's southern suburbs. The incident occurred on Monday morning when an unmarked police vehicle, pursuing a stolen car, collided with a civilian vehicle. Two police officers involved in the pursuit were taken to hospital as a precaution and later discharged.
The collision happened at the intersection of South Street and Beasley Road in Leeming. The stolen car had been spotted by officers earlier on Albany Highway in Maddington. Following the crash, the stolen vehicle was tracked by a police helicopter to a caravan park in Coogee, where its driver was arrested.
Disagreement on the sequence of events
PerthNow reported that the elderly driver of the Hyundai Accent gave way to the stolen vehicle before pulling out in front of the police car. ABC Australia stated the police car, which was understood to be using its lights and siren, collided with the Hyundai Accent as it was turning across South Street.
Omissions
None of the left-rated digests mention the specific location where the stolen car was first spotted by officers. The right-rated digest does not mention the elderly driver being cut from his vehicle or the specific hospital he was taken to.
Still developing. We have re-checked which outlets are covering this 3 times, most recently on 12 Oct 2026, 09:45, and will add the sides that appear.
How other outlets pictured it
Which photograph to run is each newsroom’s own choice. The leaning beside a name is that outlet’s published rating, not a claim that the pictures divide along it. Every picture is shown from the outlet’s own server and links to the article it ran in.
How each side covered it
Our own reading of the reporting listed below, written from the outlets’ articles rather than quoted from them. The reasoning is set out on our methodology page.
Left
4 rated outlets
- The left-rated reports led with the serious injury to the elderly man, describing him as collateral damage in a police pursuit. They noted the police car was unmarked and travelling at high speeds. The reports detailed the extent of the damage to the civilian car, including its engine being ejected, and mentioned the police officers were taken to hospital as a precaution. The arrest of the 27-year-old driver of the stolen car was also included.
Centre
3 rated outlets
- The centre-rated reports highlighted the dramatic nature of the crash, with one headline stating a "man fighting for life after police car slams into vehicle as pursuit goes wrong". They included witness accounts from a tradie who described the sound and visual impact of the crash, noting the engine was thrown from the car. The reports detailed the elderly driver being cut from his vehicle and taken to Royal Perth Hospital, and mentioned the police officers' discharge. The pursuit of the stolen car, its initial sighting, and the subsequent arrest of its driver were also covered.
Right
1 rated outlet
- The single right-rated report stated that police were responding to a serious crash that left one person seriously injured in Perth's south. It did not provide further details on the circumstances of the crash or the identities of those involved beyond the initial fact of the injury.
Questions about this coverage
- How did the left and right cover Elderly man seriously injured after police pursuit crash in Perth?
- Of the 8 outlets on this story carrying a published leaning rating, 50% are rated left, 37% are rated centre, 13% are rated right. Those percentages are shares of the rated outlets, not of every outlet that ran it. The sections above set out what each side emphasised, in its own terms.
- Is Elderly man seriously injured after police pursuit crash in Perth left or right?
- Too few of the outlets on this story carry a published leaning rating to say. 8 of them do, and this site does not characterise a field under 12: at that size one newsroom filing moves the share by ten points. The percentages above are the count as it stands.
- Is the coverage of Elderly man seriously injured after police pursuit crash in Perth biased?
- Elderly man seriously injured after police pursuit crash in Perth is one event reported by 8 outlets, and this page does not rate the story as biased or unbiased. What it publishes is the spread: which outlets ran it, where named rating organisations place each of them on the spectrum, and what each side chose to lead with. A leaning rating describes an outlet's record over time, not this article, and the two should not be run together.
- Which side is not reporting Elderly man seriously injured after police pursuit crash in Perth?
- When we first saw this story, outlets rated right had barely covered it. Coverage accretes for hours after an event, so that is where to look rather than a verdict — the split above is the current count, and it is the one to read.
- Which outlets covered Elderly man seriously injured after police pursuit crash in Perth?
- 8 that we know of, every one of them listed further up this page with a link to its own report and to what we hold on the publisher. Nothing here is a summary of somebody else's summary: the outlets are named so the original reporting can be read.
- How old is the man injured in the crash?
- The man injured in the crash is 80 years old. He sustained serious injuries and was taken to Royal Perth Hospital.
- What happened during the police pursuit?
- An unmarked police vehicle was pursuing a stolen car when it collided with a civilian vehicle driven by an 80-year-old man. The crash occurred at the intersection of South Street and Beasley Road in Leeming.
- Were any police officers injured?
- Yes, two police officers who were in the unmarked vehicle were taken to hospital as a precaution. They were later discharged.
- What happened to the driver of the stolen car?
- The driver of the stolen car was apprehended in Coogee after being tracked by a police helicopter. He was taken into custody and is assisting detectives.
Read it at the source
8 outlets, grouped by the leaning a published rating gives them. Every headline links to the original; an underlined outlet name opens our profile of that publisher.
Left
4- Elderly man rushed to hospital after police pursuit crash (opens Brisbane Times in a new tab)
Brisbane Times — is Brisbane Times biased? Our profile of this outlet
- Elderly man rushed to hospital after police pursuit crash (opens The Age in a new tab)
- Elderly man rushed to hospital after police pursuit crash (opens Sydney Morning Herald in a new tab)
Sydney Morning Herald — is Sydney Morning Herald biased? Our profile of this outlet
- Breaking: Police pursuit ends in serious crash in Perth's south (opens ABC Australia in a new tab)
ABC Australia — is ABC Australia biased? Our profile of this outlet
Centre
3- Police chase goes horribly wrong, man fighting for life (opens 7NEWS Australia in a new tab)
7NEWS Australia — is 7NEWS Australia biased? Our profile of this outlet
- Elderly man rushed to hospital after police pursuit crash (opens WA today in a new tab)
- Rescuers rush to scene after one trapped in serious crash (opens PerthNow in a new tab)
Right
1Not rated
0No outlet in this group ran the story.
How did this read?
About the coverage, not about the story. We do not ask whether you agree with what happened — we have no honest use for that answer.
