SIU clears Kingston officer who hit car at 130 km/h on call

Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit found no reasonable grounds to believe a Kingston Police officer committed a criminal offence when his cruiser, travelling at speeds up to 130 km/h in a 40 km/h zone, ran a red light and hit a car on June 27, SIU Director Joseph Martino said in a report dated Oct. 26.

A 71-year-old woman driving the car suffered a fractured sternum and her passenger was diagnosed with two hematomas in the abdomen, according to the SIU’s news release. The SIU is the civilian agency that investigates serious injuries and deaths involving police in Ontario.

The director’s report, on case 26-OVI-302, says the officer was driving a marked Chevrolet Tahoe west on Brock Street at about 9:39 a.m., responding to a priority call about a vehicle that had reportedly gone off the road and into water near 4200 Bath Street. The report says that detail was later found to be inaccurate and that the vehicle was not submerged.

The woman was driving a Subaru Forester south on Victoria Street and entered the intersection on a green light, the report says. The cruiser’s emergency lights and siren were on before and as it entered the intersection, and both vehicles were rendered inoperable.

Martino wrote that under sections 144(18) and 144(20) of the Highway Traffic Act the officer should have stopped at the red light and proceeded only when it was safe. "Had he done so, it is very likely that the collision with the Complainant’s vehicle would not have occurred," he wrote.

The director also said that in reaching speeds upwards of 130 km/h, more than three times the posted limit, and entering the intersection without stopping, the officer "constituted a danger on the roadway that imperiled public safety."

He said that did not settle the criminal question, which was whether the driving was a marked departure from a reasonable standard of care. The offence considered was dangerous driving causing bodily harm under section 320.13(2) of the Criminal Code.

Martino pointed to the emergency lights and siren, the fact the officer was responding to what was believed to be a life-threatening situation, light traffic, good conditions and driving that was short in time and distance. He wrote that the officer slowed and looked both ways before entering the intersection.

"Though the SO would have been better advised to moderate his speed and ensure compliance with the rules of the road, the officer’s conduct was motivated by what was itself a compelling public safety objective," Martino wrote, using the report’s abbreviation for subject official. He concluded he could not reasonably find the officer went beyond the limits of care set by the criminal law.

The director said he noted possible contraventions of sections 19 and 27 of the Police Code of Conduct over the failure to stop at the red light. He said he is referring the matter to the Kingston Police Service for review and, under section 35.1 of the Special Investigations Unit Act, 2019, to the Law Enforcement Complaints Agency.

The SIU report does not name the officer, the woman or her passenger. The agency said the SIU is notified when police are involved in incidents causing death, serious injury, sexual assault or the discharge of a firearm at a person, and that its directors must publicly report the results of investigations.

The SIU has closed several other Ontario police cases in recent days, including the OPP cruiser crash in Toronto, the fatal shooting in Welland and a fall from a parking garage railing in Ottawa.

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