News Release

News Release

SIU Concludes Investigation into Boy’s Injuries in Brampton

Case Number: 12-OVI-349   

Mississauga (17 December, 2012) --- The Director of the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), Ian Scott, has concluded that there are no reasonable grounds to charge a Peel Regional Police officer with any criminal offence in relation to the injuries sustained by an 8-year-old boy in November of 2012.

The SIU assigned five investigators, two forensic investigators, and a collision reconstructionist to probe the circumstances of this incident. As part of the investigation, the SIU interviewed three witness officers and nine civilian witnesses.  The subject officer declined to provide a statement or a copy of his duty notes to the SIU, as is his legal right.

The SIU investigation found that the following events took place on the morning of November 26th:
• At approximately 8:50 a.m. the subject officer and a witness officer were responding, in separate marked police cruisers, to a domestic call on Moregate Crescent in Brampton. 
• The witness officer’s vehicle was ahead of the one driven by the subject officer.
• Both vehicles turned east from Dixie Road into Moregate Crescent.  Moregate Crescent is a private road shaped in a figure eight with many townhouses in the vicinity.
• Both cruisers initially headed northbound on Moregate Crescent, circled around and were travelling in a southerly direction near the entrance point into this circular roadway. 
• On the east side of Moregate Crescent– or left hand side from the subject offer’s perspective–there were two stationary vehicles driven by civilian witnesses awaiting the arrival of a school bus that typically stopped on Dixie Road. 
• The boy, who was on his way to the school bus stop, briefly talked to one of the witnesses in one of the parked cars, when he saw that the school bus had arrived. 
• He went out between the two parked cars in the direction of the school bus.
• The boy saw the first cruiser driven by the witness officer go by and then proceeded onto the roadway in a westerly direction toward the school bus into the path of the oncoming police cruiser driven by the subject officer.
• The police cruiser came into contact with the boy at the driver’s side front fender, and the impact threw the child to the ground.
• Paramedics were called to the scene and transported the boy, first to Brampton Civic Hospital and later to the Hospital for Sick Children, where he was treated for fractures to his right tibia and fibula. 
• There were no crosswalks, traffic lights or stop signs at this location.  As best as can be determined by the SIU accident reconstructionist, the speed of the subject officer’s vehicle at the moment of impact was between 37 and 42 km/hr.

The Director said, “In my view, the subject officer cannot be faulted for his manner of driving in these circumstances.  He was not speeding or driving in a dangerous manner immediately before the moment of impact.  Unfortunately, the complainant proceeded out from between two parked vehicles into the oncoming southbound traffic. The subject officer simply did not have an opportunity to avoid this collision.  While the youth sustained a serious injury, it thankfully was not life-threatening.”        

The SIU is an independent government agency that investigates the conduct of officials (police officers as well as special constables with the Niagara Parks Commission and peace officers with the Legislative Protective Service) that may have resulted in death, serious injury, sexual assault and/or the discharge of a firearm at a person. All investigations are conducted by SIU investigators who are civilians. Under the Special Investigations Unit Act, the Director of the SIU must

• consider whether the official has committed a criminal offence in connection with the incident under investigation
• depending on the evidence, cause a criminal charge to be laid against the official where grounds exist for doing so, or close the file without any charges being laid
• publicly report the results of its investigations