Exclusive new video is helping shed light on a horrific crash that left a Vancouver taxi driver dead.
Surveillance videos obtained by Global News from businesses on East Hastings Street show a white ShareNow/Car2Go vehicle speeding eastbound at 3:17 a.m.
Seconds later, a police car can be seen pulling a U-turn after seeing the vehicle flash by at more than twice the legal speed limit.
Global News has confirmed that the smart car was travelleing in excess of 120 km/hr before it is believed to have turned south on Renfrew Street, where police lost sight of the vehicle.
Moments later, 28-year-old Sanehpal Singh Randhawa was killed when his Yellow Cab was hit by a speeding ShareNow vehicle in the intersection of East 1st Avenue and Renfrew.
The taxi’s two passengers were treated for non-life threatening injuries, while the Car2Go vehicle’s driver was taken to hospital, where he remains recovering from life-altering injuries.
Vancouver police told Global News that officers had attempted to pull the driver over at a CounterAttack roadblock at the intersection of Hastings Street and Clark Drive.
“When he was asked to pull over to the side of the road he immediately fled the area at a high rate of speed,” said Sgt. Aaron Roed.
“By the time we were able to get in our vehicles and attempt to follow the last known vehicle of this fleeing vehicle, he was already gone. The speed he was travelling were dramatically faster than what the posted speed limit was.”
Police radioed the fleeing vehicle to VPD dispatch as well as the Burnaby RCMP, believing the car might have been headed to that municipality.
Grant Gottgetreu, retired police officer and forensic traffic consultant, said after viewing the videos it was clear that the Car2Go driver was driving dangerously as defined by the Criminal Code of Canada.
“The one video was a blur, the vehicle went by so fast,” he said. “I think it was inevitable that it was going to result in a collision.
“When you’re travelling that fast in that type of area your depth perception and reaction time is gone. Even if you’re the victim, you have no chance to react to someone that’s travelling that fast.”
Police said the investigation remains ongoing, including looking into whether alcohol contributed to the crash.
Roed said the driver is still dealing with injuries, and that investigators will speak with him “as time progresses.”
B.C.’s police watchdog the Independent Investigation Office is also probing the case to determine what role, if any, police action played in the crash.