Blame for dooring put on officer

Toronto cop faulted for opening door that hit cyclist, but SIU says charges aren’t warranted

The facts are clear, according to the Special Investigations Unit: A Toronto police officer, parked in a bike lane, opened his door directly into the path of an oncoming cyclist, knocking the cyclist to the ground and breaking his wrist.

But charges aren’t warranted, the agency said in a news release Tuesday. The SIU is responsible for investigating police incidents of death, sexual assault or serious injury.

On the morning of June 5, according to an SIU investigation based on witness interviews and security footage of local businesses and the police cruiser itself, an officer pulled over a driver on Adelaide St. W., between Simcoe and Duncan Sts. The officer parked his cruiser behind the pulled-over car, in the bike lane. He did not activate his lights.

While he was in his cruiser, two cyclists passed the officer, after which he opened his door slightly and one more cyclist passed. Two seconds later, the officer opened his door fully, striking the next cyclist attempting to pass.

The officer asked the cyclist multiple times whether he needed an ambulance as other cyclists gathered around and “questioned and challenged” the officer,

the SIU report says.

One of the cyclists asked if the officer checked his mirror.

“I did,” he said. “As soon as he (motioning to the third cyclist to pass) passed I opened the door and that was it.”

The officer said he “thought (the struck cyclist) was slowing down, so I opened it and he was going to go around me, but he didn’t, he went into me.”

The SIU found that, in dooring the cyclist, the officer violated Section 165 of the Highway Traffic Act, which says drivers must not open doors on a highway “without first taking due precautions to ensure that his or her act will not interfere with the movement of or endanger any other person or vehicle.”

But while the officer was “responsible for directly causing the collision with the Complainant and causing his injury,” the SIU found his actions did not constitute “a marked departure from a reasonable level of care in the circumstances.”

In fact, because he allowed the cyclists to pass and cracked his door open before opening it fully, the SIU found “evidence to suggest that the (officer) was in fact mindful of cyclists in the bicycle lane in the seconds preceding the collision.”

The SIU said that although the officer was “clearly to blame for causing the accident,” his actions did not constitute criminal negligence — defined in the Criminal Code as doing anything that “shows wanton or reckless disregard for the lives or safety of other persons.”

The dooring constituted a “momentary lack of attention,” the SIU said.