Police cleared of fault in fatal 2023 crash in B.C.’s Interior
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Digital Subscription
One year of digital access for only $205*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/11/2024 (657 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
SURREY, B.C. – British Columbia’s independent police watchdog has cleared officers of wrongdoing in a crash where three people were killed south of Kamloops in July of last year.
A report from the Independent Investigations Office says a man was driving recklessly at a high rate of speed and was in the wrong lane on Highway 97D near Logan Lake when he hit another vehicle head-on. The man and the two occupants in the other car died.
The report says RCMP had removed the man who caused the crash from a hotel in Merritt, about 90 minutes before the fatal collision, triggering an investigation into whether police actions may have played a role in the crash.
Chief Civilian Director Jessica Berglund says in the report that a toxicology test done on the man found evidence of cannabis consumption above the legal driving limit, but officers were “reasonable” in deciding not to apprehend the man at the hotel.
Berglund says both officers at the scene stayed with the man for 20 to 30 minutes while removing him from the hotel, and neither the officers nor a hotel employee who witnessed the interaction felt the man was impaired during that time.
Her report says the man made a critical decision that resulted in a crash, and the case was very tragic for the family and friends of all those involved.
“However, the officers were not responsible for these tragic deaths, and no criminal liability flows to them as a result,” Berglund’s report concludes.
The report says the man was told to leave the hotel after flooding his room, and he admitted to officers that he had taken painkillers and smoked cannabis the night before he was removed.
Berglund says the officers at the scene were “doing continuous assessments” on the man’s mental health and impairment during the entirety of the time they spent with him, and never felt he was impaired at the time.
The decision says officers “would have to show a wanton or reckless disregard” for potential danger to human lives in order to have criminal liability, adding that police behaviour in this case doesn’t constitute a “marked and substantial departure” from appropriate standard procedure.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 14, 2024.