OPP officer who pursued vehicle that crashed cleared by watchdog
Cop nowhere near BMW at time of 406 collision, SIU says
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has determined an Ontario Provincial Police officer was not at fault when the vehicle she was pursuing drove onto a Highway 406 off-ramp at a high rate of speed and ended up colliding with a wall.
The incident occurred shortly at around 3 a.m. on March 16, when an officer conducting speed enforcement on the QEW in St. Catharines clocked a car heading eastbound at 134 km/h.
The officer turned on the cruiser’s lights and pursued the vehicle, a BMW 440, following it onto Highway 406.
The speeding vehicle had some distance on the officer, who lost sight of the BMW and reached speeds as high as 174 km/h trying to catch up.
According to GPS data, the BMW was going 222 km/h as it entered into the Fourth Avenue off-ramp, too fast for the curve. The BMW spun clockwise, mounted the curb for the off-ramp island, then crossed the westbound lanes of 4th Avenue. It struck the centre median and became airborne, crossing the eastbound lanes and – while nearly two metres off the ground – striking the retaining wall with its right front corner.
The SIU investigation determined the OPP officer wasn’t in the vicinity when this occurred and didn’t even know it had happened. Instead she continued southbound until she got to Glendale Avenue and turned around, eventually coming across the scene which another officer had already come across.
The two male occupants of the car had to be cut out and were taken to the St. Catharines hospital, with the driver later being airlifted to Hamilton General Hospital.