SIU clears Toronto officer after the driver of a stolen pick-up died in a fiery crash during pursuit

The province's police watchdog deemed a Toronto police officer "comported himself with due care" during the pursuit of a driver of a stolen vehicle, who died after the truck crashed into a bridge.

On Friday, the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) released its report on the July 29 incident in the area of Dixon and Martin Grove roads that resulted in the death of a 25-year-old man, named the complainant.

After assessing the evidence, SIU Director Joseph Martino cleared the Toronto police officer involved, determining there were "no reasonable grounds" to believe they committed a criminal offence in connection with the man's death.

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Martino was trying to determine if the officer in question, called the subject official (SO) in the report, had breached section 320.13(3) of the Criminal Code, which could result in a dangerous driving causing death charge.

"As an offence of penal negligence, a simple want of care will not suffice to give rise to liability. Rather, the offence is predicated, in part, on conduct that amounts to a marked departure from the level of care that a reasonable person would have observed in the circumstances," Martino wrote.

"In the instant case, the issue is whether there was a want of care in the manner in which the SO operated his vehicle, sufficiently egregious to attract criminal sanction that caused or contributed to the collision."

Which the SIU director determined, there was not.

WHAT HAPPENED

The incident happened shortly after 2 p.m. when the complainant walked toward a Dodge Ram pick-up truck in the area of Dixon Road and Kipling Avenue.

In the report, the SIU noted officers were aware there was a stolen vehicle in the vicinity, and a team of surveillance officers were around the area, including the SO, who was driving an unmarked police vehicle at the time.

They planned to arrest the driver before they got inside the pick-up, the SIU noted. However, they were unsuccessful when they attempted to surround the pick-up, as the complainant realized what was happening, quickly entered the vehicle and drove off.

The SIU said the SO followed the driver, who mounted a curb and drove over a meridian to swerve by another police vehicle. But the SO followed the vehicle, heading north on Martin Grove Road.

The report said the complainant drove at "highway speeds," breezing by a stop sign and a red light.

At the light, the SIU said the driver "briefly lost control" of the truck as it swerved into southbound lanes, mounted a curb and struck a light standard before heading back on the right path north.

The complainant continued driving that way through a green light at Dixon Road. Just north of that intersection, the SIU said he cut between two vehicles before leaving the road and colliding into the concrete of the Highway 401 off-ramp overpass, where the pick-up "exploded" on impact.

According to the report, the officer pursuing the driver was roughly five seconds behind the complainant, and he and his team stopped their vehicles south of the collision site and tried to assist. The complainant died on scene.

Martino said he was satisfied with how the SO conducted himself during the pursuit, saying they had done so with "due care and regard for public safety."

“The officer travelled at moderate speeds, was in substantial compliance with a stop sign and red light that crossed his path, and was a fair distance back of the pick-up as it passed Dixon Road en route to the point of impact, all of which transpired over no more than a kilometre,” the report reads.

The director, as a result, said there is no basis for charging the officer as he conducted himself “lawfully” throughout the incident.