Fatal crash 62 seconds after pursuit began

Police have been cleared of any wrongdoing over a crash which killed the drug-affected driver of a stolen car 62 seconds after a pursuit started in regional NSW.

An inquest has found Terry Ah-See was the driver of the car which shot through the air and flipped, leaving him with fatal injuries in suburban Bathurst on March 29, 2017.

Mr Ah-See took over driving the car mid-way through the pursuit, before losing control, the accident "violently" ejecting him from the vehicle, along with a passenger who survived the crash.

Deputy state coroner Elizabeth Ryan concluded in her findings, handed down on Tuesday, that the two officers in pursuit of the 35-year-old father could not be criticised for their actions.

Mr Ah-See was drug affected when police spotted the car he was travelling in - stolen earlier that morning and registered to a suspended driver - and signalled for it to stop.

But the car sped off, briefly stopping when the original driver pulled over onto a nature strip and fled.

Mr Ah-See jumped into the driver's seat and was pursued by another officer but things took a tragic turn after he crossed to the wrong side of the street as he overtook a van, crossed a set of railway tracks and crashed.

Ms Ryan said she was satisfied police were unaware the car was being driven by someone who was drug affected and that officers had complied with the force's safe driving policy.

"Given the speed with which events then unfolded, there could not be any reasonable criticism of (the) failure to call a termination of the pursuit," she said.

Ms Ryan, with minor changes, reiterated the recommendations made by deputy state coroner Derek Lee following an inquest into the death of police Sergeant Geoffrey Richardson who died en route to assist in a police pursuit in the Hunter Valley in 2016.

These included a review into the NSW Police Force's safe driving policy to unequivocally define 'termination' in relation to police pursuits.

She also recommended it be made clear whether a loss of vision of a vehicle amounts to the termination of a police pursuit and consistency in language among officers when they communicate that a pursuit has been terminated.