Police were not to blame for a high-speed crash in the Okanagan last year that led to a man being seriously injured, according to a new report.
On Wednesday, the Independent Investigations Office of BC (IIO) released its findings into the West Kelowna incident.
The report said the Sept. 23, 2019 episode began when police tried pulling over a prohibited driver on Highway 97, but the southbound suspect sped away, eventually colliding with a northbound vehicle.
The crash, which the report said happened at approximately 6:30 p.m. and involved four vehicles, closed the highway for several hours.
The report said because the collision occurred shortly after an interaction with police, the IIO was notified and commenced an investigation.
The IIO gathered statements from the suspect, two police officers and seven civilian witnesses plus recordings from dashcam video and closed-circuit television recordings from commercial premises and the William Bennett Bridge, according to the report.
The report said a plainclothes officer spotted the suspect driving, though he was prohibited from doing so.
- RCMP arrests alleged hitmen accused of killing B.C. Sikh leader
- Fall COVID-19 vaccine guidelines are out. Here’s what NACI recommends
- Some 2019 candidates ‘appeared willing’ to engage with foreign interference: Hogue inquiry
- Thousands of Canada’s rail workers have a strike mandate. What happens now?
“Instructions were given to Officer 1, an RCMP general duty member in a marked police vehicle, to execute a traffic stop,” said the report.
The officer followed the suspect across the William Bennett Bridge towards West Kelowna, and just before the Westside Road exit, the officer turned on his vehicle’s emergency lights in an effort to pull the suspect over.
The report said one civilian witness said he saw the suspect’s vehicle cut quickly across traffic lanes and take the exit ramp at high speed, almost colliding with a concrete barrier.
The witness said he then saw a police vehicle also take the exit ramp with its emergency lights flashing.
The witness said the suspect sped down the on-ramp and merged back onto the highway, though he noted the police vehicle pulled over and stopped.
That the police vehicle stopped was corroborated by a second officer in a surveillance vehicle, with the second officer adding that the first officer turned off his vehicle’s emergency lights.
“The suspect’s vehicle, travelling along the shoulder lane, appeared to clip another southbound vehicle and then immediately swerved left across the southbound lanes and the median, colliding with an oncoming northbound vehicle.”
The second civilian witness said she did not see any police vehicle or emergency lights at the time and did not hear a siren.
“For his part, the suspect told investigators that he was not aware that he was being followed by a police vehicle at the time, and denied being involved in a police chase,” said the report.
“He said he believed his vehicle had been ‘tapped’ by a flatbed truck that had come up racing behind him. He believed he lost control of his vehicle, and after that only remembered waking up in the hospital.”
The suspect told the IIO he suffered a fractured skull plus a broken arm, shoulder, femur, pelvis, knee and ankle.
In summarizing, the IIO sided with police, stating the evidence does not support the possibility that an unjustified chase caused the traffic accident.
“The accident was caused by the suspect’s behavior in speeding and losing control of his vehicle, not by any inappropriate act of a police officer.”
Comments