By PAUL MILLAR
A veteran policeman, who thought he would die after being repeatedly stabbed by an ice-crazed driver on the highway at Batesford, has been awarded the Victoria Police Star.
Senior-sergeant David Reither, who was transferring from Geelong to Ballarat at the time, said the award, one of the highest in the force, closed another chapter in a career of more 27 years.
It was a modest answer from an officer, who suffered dearly for doing what he regarded as his duty, while travelling along the Midland Highway in August 2013.
A routine trip in his marked police car turned into life-changing episode when a drug-fuelled West Geelong cafe hand pulled the handbrake on his girlfriend’s car, causing it to spin 180 degrees on the busy highway, narrowly missing traffic.
The car straddled the middle of the highway facing the wrong way with the man and woman involved in an obvious dispute.
The senior-sergeant pulled over to offer aid and was calling triple 0 when he felt four blows to his side.
“I thought there had been an accident at the time and then I felt the hits to my side,” he told the Indy.
They were more than punches – it was a frenzied knife attack.
He realised immediately that he was in trouble and called his wife as he believed he might die. He fell to the roadway and was airlifted to the Alfred, suffering massive internal bleeding, with his left lung collapsing after being flooded by blood.
He recalled the day with prompting and modesty.
“That’s what we do, sometimes we stop to help and then things happen,” he said, back on the job at the station.
He is still dealing with “some physical issues” but admits the incident, not the medal, has changed him.
“The good thing now is that I am more cautious for my members, I think about things a little bit more,” he said.
The Grovedale man who stabbed him was later captured following a full scale manhunt after he fled into nearby paddocks.
He was sentenced to four years and eight months with a non-parole period of two years.
During an award ceremony Senior-Sergeant Reither was commended by Assistant Commissioner (Western Region) Tess Walsh for efforts that went “so far above and beyond” the call of duty.
