SIU clears police in crash of motorcycles

The province’s police watchdog has ruled a Windsor officer did nothing to cause the collision of two motorcyclists who were speeding away from him after he tried to pull them over.

“In the final analysis, I am satisfied that the care exercised by the officers in the course of this short-lived pursuit — no longer than about one and a half kilometres — fell well within the limits prescribed by the criminal law,” Joseph Martino, acting director of the Special Investigations Unit, said in a press release. “Accordingly, there are no reasonable grounds to proceed with charges in this case.”

The chain of events began shortly after midnight on Sept. 23, 2015. Three men were on separate motorcycles, going north on Ouellette Avenue near Giles Boulevard.

The officer and his partner noticed the motorcycle riders speeding and driving recklessly, according to the SIU.

The officers followed them down Ouellette. As the bikes were turning left onto Riverside Drive, the officers turned on their cruiser emergency lights.

At that point, the SIU said, two of the motorcycles sped away from the officers at more than 100 km/h. The officers turned on the siren again near Janette Avenue and the third motorcycle sped away.

Police lost sight of all three bikes. Shorty after that, two of the motorcyclists collided with each other near Campbell Avenue, lost control and crashed. One of them suffered a broken ankle. The other man wasn’t hurt.

The SIU, an arm’s length agency that probes reports of death, serious injury or sexual assault involving police, assigned six people to the investigation.

The SIU also did collision reconstruction and analysis, reviewed video recordings from cameras along the route and looked at GPS data from the officer’s cruiser at the time of the crash.

“On the record gathered in this investigation, I find there was very little if anything the officers did wrong,” said Martino. “Given the speeds of the motorcycles and the manner in which they were being operated, the officers were well within their rights when they first began to follow and then attempted to stop the motorcyclists for traffic infractions.”

After it became clear that the motorcycles were not stopping, said Martino, there is no indication that the officers picked up speed.

“On the contrary, appreciating the futility and public safety implications of attempting to chase down the motorcycles, the officers very deliberately maintained a safe speed (never exceeding 90 km/h) and simply followed on Riverside Drive until they came upon the downed bikes,” he said.