Ontario’s police watchdog has cleared a London officer of criminal wrongdoing after a couple were injured when their sedan was broadsided by a police cruiser in the Old East Village in August.
The incident happened shortly after 4 p.m. on Aug. 28 at the intersection of Quebec Street and Queens Avenue, the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) said in a statement on Friday.
According to the SIU, the officer had been responding to a call along King Street for a report of a man with a gun at the time of the collision, and had been travelling west down Queens Avenue from Woodman Avenue with lights and sirens activated.
The officer continued through the stop sign governing westbound traffic along Queens and entered the intersection without stopping, colliding with the driver’s side rear of a southbound Ford Focus, the SIU said.
A GPS data point taken as the officer entered the intersection showed the cruiser had been travelling at around 60 km/h, just over the speed limit.
The sedan, occupied by a 58-year-old male driver and his 62-year-old wife in the passenger seat, was sent spinning toward a fire hydrant at the southwest corner of the intersection, which it struck, causing the vehicle to stop abruptly, the SIU said.
The officer involved called dispatch for help, and assisted the driver and passenger of the sedan, the SIU said.
“I’m at Queens and Quebec, just got in a collision here with someone,” the officer called over the radio, according to the SIU, which noted that an ambulance was requested for a man bleeding from his head.
“Everything is okay here, just need an ambulance, Code Two, head injury, everybody conscious, breathing and talking,” the officer said.
The 58-year-old male driver suffered a laceration to his head and was treated at Victoria Hospital, while the 62-year-old female passenger sought medical attention several days later where they were diagnosed with multiple right-sided rib fractures, the SIU said.
One subject official was designated as part of the investigation, along with one witness official and two complainants — the occupants of the sedan.
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The SIU says all four were interviewed as part of the investigation. The subject official at the centre of the probe declined to submit their notes, as is their legal right.
In his conclusion, SIU Director Joseph Martino says that based on the evidence, there were no reasonable grounds to believe the officer committed a criminal offence, namely dangerous driving causing bodily harm.
“The offence is predicated, in part, on conduct that amounts to a marked departure from the level of care that a reasonable person would have exercised in the circumstances,” Martino writes.
“In the instant case, the question is whether there was a want of care on the part of the (subject official) that caused or contributed to the collision and / or was sufficiently egregious to attract criminal sanction. In my view, there was not.”
Martino says he accepts that the officer involved had been executing his lawful duty in travelling through the intersection to respond to a high priority call involving reported firearms.
He writes further that, while the officer acted dangerously by failing to stop at the intersection resulting in the crash, “I am unable to reasonably conclude that the officer’s indiscretion was of a magnitude warranting criminal liability.”
“There is no indication that in his travels to the collision site that the SO drove without regard for public safety. There is no firm evidence, for example, that he disregarded the traffic lights that he would have encountered along the path that he took. Nor is there evidence of significantly excessive speed,” Martino says.
“Moreover, the officer’s emergency lights and siren were on, a fact that might have averted the collision had there not been overgrown trees and bushes on the northeast corner of the intersection creating a sight obstruction between west and southbound traffic.”
The full SIU report can be read on the agency’s website.
The SIU is an arm’s length agency that investigates events involving the police that have resulted in death, serious injury, or reports of sexual assault.
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