A driver who witnessed a police chase in the opposite direction on Highway 401 moments before a fatal crash said he hoped the chase would have been called off before lives were lost.
He The chase began after a robbery. near Green Road and Highway 2 in Bowmanville just before 8 p.m. Monday. At some point, the fleeing vehicle entered Highway 401 in the wrong direction, police said.
At the time, Brodie Mills was driving to dinner, heading west on Highway 401 toward Boston Pizza in Ajax, Ontario. when he noticed a vehicle traveling westbound in the eastbound lanes, traveling between 100 and 110 miles, he said.
There were at least two police vehicles “following” the suspect vehicle at the time, Mills added.
“They were crossing traffic coming and going. It was crazy,” Mills told CTV News Toronto. “I was in the left lane doing 120 (km/h) in normal traffic and it was like I was parked on the road when they passed me.”
Mills told CTV News Toronto that police vehicles pursuing the suspect were “keeping their distance on the shoulder” but were traveling at high speed.
A video, obtained by CTV News Toronto, shows a 17-second glimpse of the chase, which appears to have been captured from the dash camera of a vehicle heading east on the highway.
At first, the video shows a standard highway of trucks and cars driving in the right direction. But then, in the distance, headlights appear facing the driver, who quickly stops on the shoulder of the road.
Moments later, a vehicle accelerates in the opposite direction, closely followed by a police car.
About a kilometer away, Mills said he heard an explosion that he felt rock his truck, and then he saw a pickup truck split in two as he passed the crash site while crawling on the road for about three hours.
“I was hoping someone would have called off (the chase) before it got to that point,” Mills said of the tragic ending that left four people dead, including a baby.
Under the Community Safety and Policing Act, which went into effect April 1, police officers must determine that the risk to public safety from any police pursuit is outweighed by the threat posed by an individual fleeing in a motor vehicle. who is not stopped or identified before initiating a vehicle pursuit.
CTV public safety analyst Chris Lewis said police pursuit protocol depends on a variety of factors, including the volume of traffic and the severity of the situation.
“Generally speaking, officers who are in pursuit can stop at any time they see fit,” Lewis told CP24 on Tuesday. “It’s just horrible, no matter what happens, obviously these officers have to live with this for the rest of their lives.”
The Durham Regional Police Service (DRPS) released a statement Tuesday afternoon, acknowledging that “many questions” surround the incident. “However, there is a legislated process regarding investigations conducted by the SIU (Special Investigations Unit) that our service must comply with,” DRPS said in the statement.
“At this time our thoughts are with those affected by this tragedy,” they said.
The SIU is investigating the circumstances surrounding the chase.