The Independent Investigations Office of BC says there are no grounds to find officers committed any offences after four people were injured in a head-on crash caused by a vehicle swerving to avoid a spike strip.
Chief Civilian Director Jessica Berglund says in a decision released Friday that police were trying to stop a stolen vehicle on the Lougheed Highway in Agassiz, B.C., on Sept. 17, 2022.
It says police were called by the owner of a stolen Mitsubishi Lancer that day, who said they spotted their car and were following it on the highway, reporting it was driving “in tandem” with a Toyota Matrix that had the identical licence plate.
It says an officer began “discreetly” tailing the Toyota, which had been stolen in Abbotsford that day, and tried to pull the car over with sirens activated, but called off the pursuit when the driver fled.
The decision says the officer subject to its investigation used a spike strip to try and stop the Toyota, which swerved into oncoming traffic and collided head-on with another vehicle, injuring the occupants of both vehicles.
The director’s decision say the officer had to balance the risks of the situation, and though it may have been an “error in judgment” to deploy the spike strip, the evidence didn’t show a marked departure from policing standards to amount to criminal negligence.