Police called off fatal chase: report
Internal file shows officers pursued suspect in oncoming traffic on Hwy. 401 despite orders to stop
Minutes before Monday’s fatal head-on collision on Highway 401, Durham Regional Police officers were called off the pursuit by a supervisor, but continued to give chase, driving the wrong way down the roadway, according to an internal document seen by the Star.
As the van careened down one of Canada’s busiest highways, cars desperately swerving out of the way to avoid disaster, officers driving marked police cruisers continued their pursuit, lights and sirens flashing, in an attempt to stop the suspect, before the chase ended in tragedy.
“This was a terrible situation for the public and police. The suspect was on the highway … this was a move by an absolute maniac,” one of the officers involved in the incident wrote in an internal report seen by the Star.
Just after 8 p.m. Monday, the man driving a U-Haul cube van hit an oncoming car east of Highway 412, in Whitby, killing four: a baby, the infant’s grandparents and the male suspect the police had been chasing, while a fifth person was taken to hospital. At least six vehicles, including a white semi-trailer, were involved in the fiery crash.
The collision — which has led to questions about why police would launch a high-speed pursuit the wrong way down the 401 — is currently under review by the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), the civilian police watchdog that probes deaths and serious injuries involving police.
WENDY GILLIS
AND JENNIFER PAGLIARO STAFF REPORTERS This was a terrible situation for the public and police.
OFFICER QUOTED IN REPORT
According to the internal police report seen by the Star — as well as information from a Durham officer with knowledge of the incident — the attempt to call off the pursuit appears to have come just before the U-Haul drove onto the 401, via Stevenson Road in Oshawa. One of the officers said they believed the police presence on the highway would “alert the public that something was wrong and hopefully they see the suspect vehicle to get out of the way,” according to the report, which is intended to capture the officer’s detailed account of what transpired.
The collision occurred roughly three minutes after the senior officer had tried to call off the chase, according to the report.
Provincial legislation and police forces’ own policies set strict limits on when and how police should launch a pursuit, given the inherent dangers. Officers must continually assess whether the chase is safe; Ontario legislation requires police to determine if “the risk to public safety that may result from the pursuit is outweighed by the risk to public safety” if the suspect fleeing is not caught.
Durham Regional Police did not confirm any details about the collision, including whether there was an attempt to call off the pursuit by a senior officer, citing the ongoing SIU investigation. A spokesperson for the SIU did not respond to questions by deadline Wednesday.
While the report offers one account of what transpired Monday night, many questions about the collision and what preceded it remain.
The 20-minute chase was set off by a robbery at a Bowmanville LCBO, near Green Road and Highway 2, where a man tried to rob the liquor store and “pulled a knife on an off-duty officer,” according to Durham police.
The Star has previously reported that, as at least six Durham cars sped the wrong way down the 401, an unidentified OPP officer commented over the radio that “someone’s going to get hurt.”
The internal police report details the movements of the U-Haul and other officers from shortly after the suspect left the LCBO through to them getting on Highway 401 in the wrong direction.
The Star reviewed those events as described in the report, along with those relayed by a dispatcher for the Ontario Provincial Police in Whitby, who was updating that forces’ own officers about the chase. The chase spanned more than 25 kilometres before entering the highway.
The report author said they received information the U-Haul driver had gotten on Highway 418 heading northbound, away from the LCBO, before exiting on Taunton Road and heading west. The author of the report then recorded that they saw the suspect headed south on Courtice Road, going, they estimated, about 100 km/h and accelerating.
The report says that as police continued the pursuit, they considered setting down a spike belt or boxing in the cube van if it was safe to do. The suspect had just committed “obvious serious criminal offences,” it said.
Just after 8 p.m., one of the officers involved saw the van drive onto the Stevenson Road on-ramp, entering the 401 eastbound lanes going westbound.
“I could not believe that the suspect was doing this. I saw a vehicle move to avoid a collision with the suspect vehicle as he began to get on the on ramp,” one of the officers wrote in the report. “I advised units that we had to stop the vehicle somehow as it was headed the wrong way on the 401 Highway.”
The fatal collision happened within minutes of the chase moving onto the highway, according to the report.
The Durham officer with knowledge of the incident said, speaking on condition of anonymity, that one officer involved in the pursuit thought he was upholding safety by letting people on the 401 see the oncoming police lights, because there was someone driving at them at a high speed.
“He thought he would be helping people with his lights but the pursuit had been called off,” the source said.
An internal Durham police direction on pursuits, a copy of which was viewed by the Star, details specific actions officers should or shouldn’t take when chasing a suspect. That includes directing officers to stop chasing a suspect if a criminal offence “such as dangerous driving” occurs during the pursuit.
It also says only two officers should engage in “the fresh and immediate” pursuit unless otherwise directed by a supervisor.
Both the provincial legislation and the police document says officers should be continually assessing the pursuit and its impact on public safety. The police policy goes further to say officers should consider things like “the nature and seriousness of the offence” and “the manner in which the vehicle is being operated” as well as “the volume of vehicular and pedestrian traffic” among other considerations.
I could not believe that the suspect was doing this. I saw a vehicle move to avoid a collision with the suspect vehicle as he began to get on the on ramp. I advised units that we had to stop the vehicle somehow as it was headed the wrong way on the 401 Highway.
DURHAM POLICE OFFICER IN HIS REPORT AFTER DEADLY CRASH