SIU probing fatal crash of mother, 3 children

Unit won’t say if police chased driver involved in Brampton collision

The province’s police watchdog is investigating after a woman and her three young daughters died in a crash involving four vehicles in Brampton early Thursday afternoon.

The 37-year-old woman and her three girls, ages one, four and six, died after the driver of an Infiniti collided with their van at around noon in the intersection of Countryside Drive and Torbram Road, an initial Special Investigations Unit press release states.

The SIU release said that, leading up to the collision, a Peel Regional Police officer was heading west on Countryside Drive when he observed an Infiniti vehicle going east, the SIU states. The release does not say whether the police gave chase.

Ashort time later, the driver of the Infiniti became involved in a collision with the van of the deceased, who had been travelling north on Torbram Road.

“The six-year-old girl was pronounced deceased at the scene. The mother and her four-yearold daughter were pronounced deceased at the Brampton Civic Hospital. The one-year-old had also been transported to the

Brampton hospital, but was then taken to the Hospital for Sick Children, where she succumbed to her injuries,” the report states.

Asked if police were chasing the Infiniti, Peel Police Const. Bancroft Wright said police can’t comment on an SIU investigation.

“Determining what transpired, including whether or not a pursuit was initiated, will be part of the SIU’s investigation,” SIU’s spokesperson Monica Hudon wrote in an email to the Star.

The driver of the Infiniti was seriously injured and taken to hospital for treatment.

As a result of the collision, two other vehicles were damaged.

Police did not specify the total number of people injured.

Four investigators, three forensic investigators and one collision reconstructionist from the SIU have been assigned to investigate the fatal collision.

Two air ambulances were initially called to the scene but then called off, police said.

In the past five years, GTA area police vehicle pursuits have resulted in two deaths, according to Star records.

On June 23, 2019, a 77-year-old man was killed and his 74-yearold wife was injured when they were hit by a car being chased by police in Scarborough. . On

Dec 20, 2015, Christopher Chartrand, 30, died near Highway 48 and Vandorf Sideroad when his car rolled into a ditch while fleeing police. The officers in both cases were cleared by the SIU.