HALIFAX — No charges will be laid following a police pursuit in Amherst earlier this year.
The province’s independent Serious Incident Response Team (SIRT) released its report Friday into the pursuit of a vehicle by an Amherst Police officer that ended with a car leaving the road and flipping multiples times.
Early in the morning on July 8, 2015, an officer was stopped and dealing with another matter when he observed a car driven by a 28-year-old man speed through a stop sign. The officer gave pursuit and the suspect vehicle went up over a curb and failed to stop for police.
SIRT says the vehicle travelled along Station Street, Willow Street and onto Willow Street Extension. During the chase, the car eventually left the road and flipped. The male driver was thrown from the car and suffered two seriously broken legs. A male passenger in the vehicle fled the scene and was not located by police until the following day.
Through car video and GPS readings in the officers car, SIRT concluded that the officer drove up to 90 km/h on Spring Street, and up to 131 km/h on Willow Street. However, given the time of day, the absence of other vehicles and pedestrians, SIRT says the officer kept the vehicle under very good control, used his lights and siren, and that he exercised sufficient caution when passing through intersections controlled by stop signs.
The report says there were no grounds to find that the officers driving constituted dangerous driving under the Criminal Code or any offences under the Motor Vehicle Act. The cause of the accident was the failure of the male to stop for police and his decision to speed away.
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