News Release

News Release

SIU Concludes Mississauga Vehicle Injuries Investigation

Case Number: 13-OVI-036   

Mississauga (15 March, 2013) --- 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 a 20-year-old male in February of 2013.

The SIU assigned one investigator, two forensic investigators and a collision reconstructionist to probe the circumstances of this incident. As part of the investigation, two witness officers and four civilian witnesses were interviewed. The subject officer consented to an interview with the SIU and provided a copy of his duty notes. 

The SIU investigation found that the following events took place on Thursday, February 7:
• In the early morning hours, the subject officer was travelling westbound on Dundas Street West in a police cruiser when he observed a white Audi travelling eastbound at a very high rate of speed.
• The subject officer slowed down, activated his emergency lighting equipment, executed a ‘U’-turn, and began following the Audi. He saw the vehicle quickly turn south onto Mississauga Road. The officer also turned right onto Mississauga Road in an attempt to either ascertain the identity of the vehicle or have it stop.
• However, as the officer drove southbound on Mississauga Road, he could no longer see the Audi.  He deactivated his emergency lights, and drove further south.  He then drove onto some side streets in an attempt to locate the vehicle in question, but had no luck. 
• The officer began to drive northbound on Mississauga Road toward Dundas Street when he saw two cars parked on the east side of the roadway and a male waving his arms in an attempt to gain the officer’s attention. The male informed the subject officer that a car had left the roadway on the east side of Mississauga Road and had come to rest in a ditch area. The subject officer approached the vehicle and saw the driver in the Audi, and his female passenger who was now outside the vehicle. 
• While the female passenger had escaped with only minor cuts, the driver required the assistance of the Mississauga Fire Department to extricate him from his vehicle. He was transported to Credit Valley Hospital where he was diagnosed as sustaining retrograde and anterograde amnesia, a laceration to the back of his left hand and an auricular hematoma to his left ear.

The SIU collision reconstructionist reported that the estimated speed of the Audi was between109 and 124 km/h at the time it left the roadway. The car became airborne and crashed through bushes and trees before it came to rest in an embankment on the east side of Mississauga Road after rotating in a clockwise direction. There is no suggestion of contact between the police cruiser driven by the subject officer and the Audi.

Director Scott said, “This is an unusual case because it is unclear whether the driver of the Audi was intentionally attempting to elude apprehension by the officer, or was simply driving in a dangerous manner unrelated to any actions of the subject officer. In the end, it does not matter. The subject officer had the lawful authority to attempt to identify the speeding vehicle, and the Audi driver in my view was fully responsible for the loss of control of his vehicle causing serious injury to himself and minor injuries to his passenger.”               

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