News Release
SIU Terminates Investigation into Collision Near Brockville
Case Number: 19-PVI-140
The Interim Director of the Special Investigations Unit, Joseph Martino, has terminated an investigation into a collision that occurred last month near Brockville.
Shortly after midnight on June 19, 2019, a 31-year-old man was driving his pickup truck westbound on Highway 401 from the Town of Prescott to Brockville. He drove past an Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) vehicle with its emergency lights activated. 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 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.
Interim Director Martino said, “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. Shortly before the collision, and unknown to the man, the pickup truck he had been driving had been briefly pursued by an OPP officer when the pickup truck failed to stop for a RIDE checkpoint. 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.”
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