Coroner awaits NSW police pursuit policy

Dylan Maher was high on "ice", driving a stolen car and speeding when police officers turned on their sirens and began a pursuit.

A minute later the "much loved" 25-year-old ploughed into a pole and was flung from the vehicle.

In handing down her findings into his death on Monday, Coroner Harriet Grahame said the officers' decision to pursue Mr Maher was compliant with the force's current Safe Driving Policy.

But it was "disappointing", she said, that the much-awaited new policy governing pursuits has still not been released - five years after its stated review date.

Mr Maher, the inquest heard, was in a stolen car when police spotted him driving erratically and speeding in the Berkeley area near Wollongong on June 27 last year.

They turned on their sirens but he sped off.

Around 72 seconds later, Mr Maher hit a power pole and was thrown from the car.

He was pronounced dead at Wollongong hospital.

Ms Grahame noted Mr Maher had an amount of methylamphetamine in his blood within the lethal range, and was also under the influence of cannabis.

One expert estimated he was going at least 119km/h in a 70km/h zone.

Describing the death as a tragedy, Ms Grahame said it was "difficult to know what might have happened had the police decided not to pursue".

"At the time of his collision Dylan was hurtling towards another school some just 800 metres ahead and the potential danger at the time was certainly extreme," she noted.

She pointed to Coroner Hugh Dillon's findings during the Hamish Raj inquest last year in which he noted "the human and social costs" of the current pursuit policy are "too high" and at least some deaths during pursuits could have been avoided.

Ms Grahame said she supported the Raj inquest findings but made no recommendations in relation to Mr Maher's death.