SIU clears Peel officer in high-speed crash that sent 2 people to hospital
Posted June 3, 2022 6:39 pm.
The province’s Special Investigations Unit has cleared a Peel Regional Police officer of any wrongdoing in a high-speed crash almost four months ago that sent two people to hospital.
It was just before 5:30 a.m. on February 5 that a police cruiser struck another vehicle in the intersection of Williams Parkway and Torbram Road in Brampton.
A 63-year-old man was taken to a trauma centre with serious but non-life threatening injuries while a female police officer was taken to a local hospital with serious injuries.
In its report, the SIU said the police cruiser was heading to assist an officer with a traffic stop at Bovaird Street East and Sunnyvale Gate when the crash occurred. The evidence showed the cruiser was going almost twice the speed limit without its emergency lights or siren on when it struck a black 4-door Honda Accord that was attempting to make a left turn. Both vehicles had a green light at the time.
The report indicates that the speed at impact was just over 103 km/h, causing significant front end damage to the police cruiser while sending the Honda Accord spinning and onto its roof.
Honda Accord that was the subject of SIU investigation after being struck by Peel police cruiser going twice the speed limit on Torbram Road back on Feb. 5, 2022. SIU/HO
“The Complainant would not have anticipated the approaching police vehicle to be travelling double the speed limit without emergency equipment activated,” reads the report. “Speed was therefore a factor in this collision.”
The report also notes that the situation was not one of urgency and that the police officer had not been dispatched to assist, once again raising the question about the “need for such speed” without the use of emergency lights and/or siren.
The report does conclude that police vehicles used in the lawful performance of a police officer’s duty are exempt from speed limits and that both drivers’ actions ultimately contributed to the cause of the crash.
“Given the heavy onus on persons making left turns to yield to oncoming traffic, I am satisfied that the officer was to a greater or lesser extent reasonably entitled to expect that the Complainant would not attempt his turn until some point after she had cleared the intersection,” writes SIU director Joseph Martino.
