HALIFAX -- Nova Scotia's Serious Incident Response Team (SIRT) has ruled there are no grounds for charges against a Cape Breton Regional Police officer after a fatal crash in Sydney, N.S., in July.
SIRT ruled in its report that the officer did chase the vehicle that eventually crashed into a home on George Street early in the morning of July 6, but stopped when directed to do so by their supervisor.
"The evidence showed that the officer had ended the pursuit well in advance of the vehicle changing direction and the cause of the fatal accident was due to excessive speed and failure to negotiate a turn in an attempt to flee the police," SIRT said in a news release.
The single-vehicle crash claimed the life of a 44-year-old man who was a passenger in the vehicle, which had a licence plate registered to another vehicle.
"The officer initiated their emergency lights to conduct a traffic stop, but the driver failed to pull over," SIRT said. "The officer then hit their siren, but the vehicle continued down the road turning onto Prince Street and accelerated away from the officer."
Even after the officer stopped chasing the suspect vehicle, the driver didn't slow down, SIRT ruled.
"The driver, who had gone down a dead-end street, turned the vehicle around and continued its dangerous operation, driving past the officer at a high rate of speed," SIRT said. "The officer notified dispatch of the vehicle’s direction of travel. Moments later, officers found the vehicle crashed into a house on George Street.
The driver and two other passengers went to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, but a third passenger died at the scene.
A complete copy of the report is available at http://sirt.novascotia.ca.
