A police officer will not face charges for a reverse accident that left two motorcyclists seriously injured earlier this year in south Etobicoke.
The province’s Special Investigations Unit says that on May 13, 2021, a police van was going the wrong way on Sixth Street, a one-way street, when it collided with an eastbound motorcycle on Birmingham Street. just before 8 pm
The 49-year-old motorcycle rider suffered multiple fractures and serious injuries to his internal organs while a 30-year-old female passenger suffered multiple fractures and a head injury.
The driver of the police patrol car was not injured in the accident.
In your report, the SIU says the officer was “operating his vehicle without an appropriate degree of attention to his surroundings” and was in part “distracted by having directed his attention to his cruise computer for reports of service calls that could be arriving via dispatch. ”
While the police watchdog concluded that the officer was going the wrong way, there were no indications of excessive speed or any other dangerous driving behavior.
“Director Martino acknowledged that the officer did not fulfill his duty to care for other drivers and was directly responsible for the collision that seriously injured two people,” the agency said in a statement Thursday. “However, he was not reasonably satisfied that the officer’s failures were of a magnitude that warranted a criminal sanction.”
The SIU is called in to investigate the police when death, serious injury, sexual assault and / or discharge of a firearm occur against a member of the public.
Reference-toronto.citynews.ca