SIU clears police in 401 crash near Brockville

The province’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU) says Ontario Provincial Police officers did nothing wrong when a man they were chasing was later struck and injured by a transport truck near Brockville last month.

“It is apparent based on the SIU’s preliminary inquiries that there is patently nothing to investigate as far as the potential criminality of any police officer is concerned in connection with this matter,” Joseph Martino, interim director of the SIU, said in a prepared statement released Wednesday morning.

The SIU, which is called to investigate incidents involving police that result in injury or death, invoked its mandate after a 31-year-old man was hit by a transport truck while allegedly fleeing a RIDE check shortly after midnight on June 19. The crash closed the eastbound lanes between Maitland and Prescott.

A news release issued by the Grenville County Ontario Provincial Police at the time said officers had been conducting a RIDE check in the Prescott area just after midnight when a vehicle left the scene. It was observed a short time later on Highway 401 west of Prescott. The vehicle then left the roadway. The adult driver was injured and was transported to hospital, police reported.

The SIU statement says the man was driving his pickup truck westbound on Highway 401 from Prescott to Brockville.

He drove past an OPP vehicle with its emergency lights on, the agency added.

“A few minutes later, the man made a U-turn in the middle of the highway but failed to negotiate the turn and struck a guard rail,” the SIU statement adds.

“The pickup truck came to a stop in the grassy median of the highway. The man got out of his pickup truck and walked in the middle of the eastbound lane of Highway 401 where he was struck by a tractor trailer. Within a few minutes, officers arrived on scene and the man was transported to hospital where he was diagnosed with a dislocated shoulder.”

Martino stated that, shortly before the collision, an OPP officer had “briefly” pursued the pickup truck when the pickup driver failed to stop for a RIDE checkpoint. The interim SIU director added this brief pursuit was “unknown to the man.”

“The pursuit had been terminated by the time the man lost control of his vehicle. On this record, it is evident that no police officer caused or contributed to the man’s collision in any fashion that could attract criminal liability. Consequently, the investigation is hereby discontinued and the file closed,” added Martino.

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Source: Ottawacitizen.com

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